(Thanks to Sir Muhammad Iqbal)
The grains of sand bound
The land like skin.
I walk alone in the Sinai,
Lost in the whiteness.
Everything I see
Has the color of skulls.
Like a mirage,
I see a small oasis—
The water is like a blue bowl—
And you are there,
My tulip of Sinai,
Alone and pure,
Drinking in the sight
Of another lost traveler,
Breathing the same,
Difficult air you breathe.
****
Danton Remoto is the Head of School of English and a Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at the University of Nottingham in Malaysia. He was a General Participant in Fiction at this year’s Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference held in Middlebury College, Vermont, USA. He has published three books of poetry as well as a novel titled Riverrun. He is at work on a second novel as well as a collection of short stories.