Camel

I stood on the hot sands looking

from east to the wide open west.

The wind rising from the north to sing south

blowing crystalline tears sparkling in waves

across the shallow dunes.

I realize that I must be along way from my home.

Bagwah, City of Golden Sands, rises out of the night,

promising the treasures of Sharizaddi's thousand and

one nights. Delights undreamed of fill my thoughts

as before the great gates I fall finding my knees in the

the same hot sands I have crossed.

I feel the might of the Semitic God upon my shoulder

forcing me to bow down as if demanding a prayer,

but the new warmth tells me it is the newborn sun

rising to remind me that I have no more water.

In the silence the thunderous whisper of a memory

reminds me as to what drove me here.

The passion for a woman with dark skin and deep eyes

burns hot like the hunger that has brought me to this

parched end at a dry oasis, and

neither her beauty nor my desire can bring me back

to my feet as I pitch forward with one last memory

to accompany me into darkness,

lust and desire can lead a fool to drink from a poisoned well.