2 poems by Clifford Liles

The Midnight Border to Morocco

We shaved at the side of the road with sparkling water.

Dropped crumbs in our Alfa Romeo, queueing

in a caravan of vans, their shadows idling under axles.

Sacks and crates were tied to roofs with ropes.

A souq on the move. Dusty air like a beaten

rug woven with cinnamon, cumin, and sump oil.

Friends primed for adventure, our mirage

of might-be memories. Presentable with passports,

our bonnet shining with hope. Counting hours

to the night crossing.

Just off the midnight ferry. Shock.

Waved aside by peaked caps.

Their gun belts gleam scorpion-brown.

We fumed in a sodium haze.

Four hours in Africa.

We pressed for explanation – ha ha!

His official response,

a stinging punch.

So, we turned back on palm-fringed oases.

Behind us, souqs we would never see.

A sun-chromed road ahead, windows down, to Andalucia,

elbowing scents from dry-walled orange groves.

We savoured take-away Arabicas.

Bruises fading like old photos.

Medea

And the actress embodies Medea, killing

her own. And she summons all the keen stings

of anger, the treachery of her ex.

She enters stage left with harrowing shrieks,

flecks of blood tainted black in the follow

spots. Chorus shocked, still as half-lit pillars.

After applause like a rattle of snares,

she removes her robe and rage.

But on the droning night bus, streetlights turn to spots,

and flats to backdrops and she commits

to the hell she will dig for him, and staggers

up concrete stairs to her wretched flat and

feeds his squalling

kids.

___________

Clifford Liles lives in Hereford but has travelled, lived, and worked in several countries. His poems have been published in Acumen, Orbis, Poetry Salzburg Review, Obsessed by Pipework, South, London Grip, and Dream Catcher. His collection of poems A Square Peg in a Round World – A Journey in Verse will be published by Black Pear Press in September 2025.