THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

For Yves those first years in Marrakech were his happiest.  There were picnics in apricot groves and the sound of Verdi in orange-blossom courtyards.  There were sexual encounters and trays of kif brought in by a manservant in the evening candlelight.  It was a hidden life behind closed doors.

*

In the heat and smoke of Marrakech, Yves’ inhibitions peeled away.  He wore paisley shirts unbuttoned against tanned skin, faded jeans, crystals tied around his neck.  He lay by the ornamental pool writing a diary and sketching, feeling saturated by sleep and a delicious lethargy.  Even the look of haunted neurosis that had defined him since adolescence eased, to be replaced by a sensuous grace.

Drake/Beautiful, 2006