Moorish Conversation, 1832 By Richard Howard (posted Tuesday, Aug. 13; to be composted Tuesday, Aug. 20) To hear "Moorish Conversation , 1832" read by the poet, click here or on the title. Don't look now (I said don't look !) I'll tell you when you can look), just lie back as if we were--well, as if we were talking . Try to behave as if we were by ourselves, that's why I brought you here in the first place. The trouble with these rooftop refuges--the one place in Tangier you can see a touch of green, something alive besides men and camels-- the trouble is, there's always a roof higher than the one you're on, a man looking down, watching ... Why bother getting really comfortable if someone's ... In any case I'd never dream of dragging my best Bokhara out here--this old Ardabil is lovely still, they never lose their ... The colors are fixed by making the camels piss all over them, then washing them out in the canal: harsh treatment, you'd think, but it works--look at me ! All the suppler for the way I've been manhandled, you must admit ... Now look: you see what I mean? That's a man up there, standing where he can ... No, not Mustapha! Someone he's put there to spy on us. On me ! What does it matter to him whether I'm up here with you or one of the bath-women? He has to know , that's all, it affords him some kind of gratification (more than he gets from anything he ever does with me!) ... Try some of this, she put the rose-petals in just this morning, it tastes really fresh ... Oh! now I see: that ... person is nothing like Mustapha's usual parasites. One thing I do have is a good memory for men's bodies. You must have noticed him: a sharp-faced foreign devil always lurking somewhere and staring so? He takes it all in as if life were the scene of the crime , even the pair of us , harmless enough on these irreproachable hassocks. Look! I know he's the one, crouching with a notebook in his artful hands: he's put us in his picture! As far as art goes--and art such as his goes far enough for spying: you don't suppose Mustapha sold rights to the roof?--we incarnate your typical Tangerine dalliance. Can't you just hear the giddy little screams once he returns to his studio: "My dear, how positively classical !" ... Never mind, he's leaving now. Some more fresh loukoum ? The tea's still warm, and so am I. Do just as you like.