rise and fall

The Bedouin & The Dates

This story you’ve never heard before,

Of the Bedouin who terrifies his people so,

The amiable folk of Wadi Swaffah,

His name is Ali Hamza al-Jabbar.

 

See the earth crumple,

And squeal under his feet,

See it crumble and slowly wilt.

 

See the men scamper,

Forlorn and wimper,

As they crawl back into their mothers’ wombs.

 

See the ladies sweep his path,

With palm brooms,

And swoon in the aftermath,

Of his grand passage.

 

See him now,

Coughing and spitting,

His conduct unwitting.

 

See him look suspectfully,

At the tender dates,

Mixed into his meal most unsavory,

Of bony rats and slimy snakes.

 

See him shake his head,

And swing his sword,

At an enemy unseen.

 

See him wonder why,

One of life’s finer tastes,

Would make him question,

The sanity of his madness,

And claim,

The peace of his mind.

 

See him wander aimlessly,

Across the land,

Until he becomes the sand,

And the sand becomes him.

 

This story you’ve never heard before,

Of the Bedouin who terrified his people so,

The amiable folk of Wadi Swaffah,

His name was Ali Hamza,

But no longer al-Jabbar.