The Borders of the Most Beautiful Empire
El Habib Louai
The beautiful borders
Of the most beautiful empire
Are guarded by disrobing guards
The beautiful borders
Of the most beautiful empire
Are guarded by a disloyal coal miner
The beautiful borders
Of the most beautiful empire
Help me shed all my beliefs
When I saw them from a plane
On the empty way from LA to Maine
The beautiful borders
Of the most beautiful empire
Are naked and rapt under the weeping star
At six o’clock in the airport
In the out-door forsaken night
A man took out his desperado guitar
To lament the beautiful borders
Of the most beautiful empire
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El Habib Louai is an Amazigh poet from Taroudant, Morocco. He holds a master’s degree incomparative literary studies and is currently teaching English in Agadir. His poems have been published in Big Bridge Magazine, DanseMacabre du Jour, Contemporary Literary Review India, and Palestine Chronicle, among others. His translation of a collection of poemsby the exiled Iranian poet Ali Abdelrezaei is available at poetrymag.ws. He is therepresentative of 100 Thousand Poets for Changein Agadir, Morocco. Louai wasalso awarded the Aimee Grunberger scholarship by Naropa University.