WALKING ON THIN ICE

thursday:
we went down to the large square south of the souks inside the walled city tonight. lady wanted to try the outdoor food. were warned never to eat street food, but lady read the stalls were fairly well regulated. they lied - lady regurgitated, fed the toilet bowl her dinner like she was its mother and the bowl her hungry chick. i’m waiting to see if i’m to suffer also. told you marrakech wasn’t done with us. marrakech is a mad hatter tea party for alice in unwonderland, only without utensils and a lot more people.

friday:
we leave for 2 months in essaouira tomorrow morning. it’s a sea town on the west coast of africa. used to harbor pirates, so i should feel at home. the area has been occupied since prehistoric times, but the walled city was built by the french only 300 years ago. unlike marrakech, there’s no cars, motorbikes, or donkey carts allowed inside the walls, so it’s cleaner, quieter, and since it’s 3 times younger than the marrakech medina, it’s cleaner and less of a rat maze. (medina - The ancient quarter of many cities in northern Africa)

gotta gather, evaluate, discard, pack, clean, smoke the last of our hash, go out to one last dinner inside the old walls, sleep, get up and leave for move #33 in the last 11 months..

i will wait for the quieter newer town and see what i feel once i relax inside its walls and sample the poetry of our new old apartment with its heavily patterned tiled walls, its lack of refrigerator and hot water, its nearness to the atlantic ocean beach. but right now, i’m tired of this. we’re in our 10th month of world travel, our 11th month of moving on since we sold our place last june. we don’t seem to be moving toward a resolution, just more evolution. but since we’re not flat earthers, i spose evolving’s good.

i may also be tired emotionally and physically from serially smoking seriously good hash for 31 days dazed. back in 2005 when i’d smoked every day for 20 years and most days for the 20 before that, i was in shape. people don’t realize heavy drinking or continuous cannabis use requires being in shape for your sin. before i quit drinking 16 years ago, i was drinking 5 gallons of cheap wine and smoking an ounce of grass a week - and still going to work for 50 hours. i found hangovers were conducive to programming computers because writing code gives you something to do while you’re waiting to feel less bad.

we’re going unstoned to the next town because it’s time to refresh. won’t even look for hash because a period of clarity is more desirable. i came to marrakech to smoke, and i smoked. i’m going to essaouira not to smoke, but to reflect and write. my 8 months straight out of the last 10 have shown me being straight hath its charms. my month toking here taught me getting stoned is fun but not the answer, and that being stoned can be work - especially when a city like marrakech can turn on you so quickly and change your plans.

speaking of plans - morocco through 1st week in july, 3 weeks camping out in scotland, 1 month london (to read poetry to an audience again), one month back in the south of france - then it gets iffy… either 2 months in cleveland and a month in mexico, or a month in mexico then 2 months in cleveland. after that we may live in mexico or guatemala or chicago or seattle for up to a year to finish our book/s. who knows said the shadow to the lack of light.