Eyes half sunken in kindness
Like a pair of bobbing dolphin heads;
Listening to Emily, you lent me your helping hand,
As I was drowning in her treacherous pond.
But, then, those dolphin eyes were my lifebuoys
That let me die quietly without spasm or pain.
It isn’t a night coach, quite--
Evening train would be a fitter name
Authorized vendors perilously sway
Up and down the compartment’s aisle
Like sliders on slide rules,
balancing business on their callused hands.
A doubtful student couple across from me
Pinch and pilfer every chance and cover
For their stringent precious privacy.
Their eyes take over their speech
Their secrets are none of public business.
Their joy, though, requires public consent
Which they are loath to seek at the moment.
I steal a look
And return to my book
Hopelessly trying to concentrate.
Once you are in the land of Canaan,
I promise to turn this terrain to Heaven!
Did you say you like to walk?
Well! your wish is my command:
We shall walk, baby, hand in hand
As far as the road takes us over the land.
We shall stride over the very land
Sanctified by the blood of Holy Crusades.
We shall tread over the same track
Taken once by Richard-the-Lion-Heart,
Or by Lawrence-of-Arabia in our time!
But now this is our track!
I shall escort you through peerless Petra,
The Nabatean’s hideout,
‘A rose-red city half as old as time’,
We shall graze all day long
Like two loving gazelles in their prime.
By eventide we shall reach
The flamboyant heights of Wadi Rum.
While watching the sunset in silence,
I’ll make a portrait of you
With colours of the twilight
On the canvas of my throbbing heart!
Under a moonlit sky,
We shall spend the night on the Valley of Moon.
While myriads of stars sparkle and smile on us:
“Look! A shooting star!” I shall scream
Like a child witnessing a magical sign;
You’ll croon in my ears, “Make a wish, Honey.”
I’ll close my eyes and make my wish
While you go and fetch my wish for me.
No, our journey is not quite over yet,
For you’re still new to this wild territory,
And I still have to guide you through curves and crevasses,
Take you through new crags and canyons, gorges and ridges.
Then, when you feel you are almost through,
I shall replenish you body and mind
And rejuvenate you with the vintage wine
Made from the best vineyards of the Holy Land.
One last elevation—Mount Nebo,
Where God had spoken to Moses
And showed him the Promised Land!
I shall erect a gate of olive branches to welcome you
On this sacred summit, my Deity, my Love,
I shall decorate your path
With purple lavender and green rosemary,
Under the Tree-of-Life, in full pomegranate blossom.
An altar, adorned in black-iris and rose-damas, is waiting for lovers.
Time for the Holy Communion!
I shall take a bite of manna from your sweet lips,
And I will be baptized in your love forever,
And then the desert shall turn into an oasis,
And the Dead Sea shall be alive again,
With elves and mermaids moaning in hymn.
At dusk when night and day kiss without a seam
The lovers, one host and the other guest,
Enter an enchanted forest Arden once they named.
And after their amorous sojourn they emerge
Incandescent with lucent kisses all over their faces
On their lips and along their throats
As though there glow-worms were swatted all night long,
As though butterflies daubed their bodies in pastel paints,
Butterflies and glow-worms that blaze on even after death.
