Dubai works hard to make visitors like me welcome and enjoy myself but there is always the barrier. One evening, as I was looking out of the window of the restaurant about to have my evening meal, I felt this quite keenly.
From My Restaurant Window High in Dubai.
The glass is cool.
Around me conditioned air
holds just a tremor of sound
warmth and noise are on the other side
but I have no sense of it.
I look to the arch of the sky
a space where cars float on the road
their wheels invisible in the night,
a flashing cord strung around lights
pricked out on the ground.
There’s the slash of luminous banners
on posts that scratch the sky just enough
to let in some of tomorrow’s sun.
Where I look are four million people
but I cannot see or smell them.
I turn from the window to be held
in smiles and professional eyes.
© Anthony Fisher December 2007