Day 17 Month of Poetry: Back to the women of fairytale for perhaps the best-known fairytale of all from the Arabic world - this is inspired by Scheherazade of 1001 Nights, and by the migraine-sleeping-off nap and weird vivid disconnected dreams I just had.
Night Wife
Listen, king, and I will tell you a tale.
It starts in a city of saints high in the desert
where the morning light has such a clarity
and the pink hills all around glow with life
and then there is a boat that goes under the sea
nosing up to the shallows like a curious porpoise
inviting you to come beneath, and yet
the sky gallops like a wild mare, ribbons of white foam
chasing each other towards heaven
there is a woman in it, with eyes like muddy stars
a gaggle of geese in a field, and a treasure -
only time will tell what kind
I saw it when I slept, and the song the colours sang
tore my heart into pieces at my feet
Listen, king, and I will weave you a new palace
the filigree of dreams is finer than any lace
honey-golden with promise and the longing,
that aching longing,
that comes when you look to the west
or at the vast night sky, and the soul cries out -
Once upon a time in a land far, far away...
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