Giselle's Ghazal

At the brothel I find you in silk-seam, unguarded against illusion
a few rupees for a theme, the scent of almonds reel against illusion.

A stage-spot strikes an open beam where a heeled slipper comes INTO SHOT,
the jeweler's fine gold chain is SEEN, a naked ankle comely against illusion.

Loops around ivory orbs, pulled within as though the eye alone had fingers
reaching to undo what had been before, only hope against illusion.

Turning colors in the months of cautious mien; one by one, veils of suspicion fall
from the blush-filled evening scene, your breasts rising against illusion.

I let you rush ahead, flushed with the sin of absence, exquisite longing
on the empty sofa where you had been, our bodies pressed against illusion.

At the palace gate, a hapless fellahin dares to retrieve the golden scarab,
nameless as the vinedresser of Umm-Hakim, propped against illusion.

Daylight thins, late customers linger. I hurry, but even the Indus runs slowly,
looking for you. On the window sill, your red comb against illusion.

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* note: Umm-Hakim, 8th c. Moorish slave appointed to captaincy in Tarik's guard.
After capturing a small Spanish island, she had one of its vinedresser
inhabitants slaughtered and boiled in a cooking pot. Her troops pretended to eat
this fellow in full view of his companions. Word of Moorish `cannibalism' was
allowed to spread and terrify the countryside. Undoubtedly a stratagem of some
value in Tarik's conquest of Andalusia.