Desert Revisited 

By Yahia Lababidi 

under a whirling skirt of sky

streaming light and stars 

groping for that tremendous hem 

gingerly over quicksand 

as though steadied 

beneath some tongue and dissolving 

not the absence of sound 

but the presence of silence 

or, as if transfixed 

by a gaze, stern-serene 

surveying a dream 

foreign-familiar 

incorruptible starting point 

inviolable horizon 

where eye and mind are free 

to meditate perfection 

there, begin to uncover 

buried in dust and disinterest 

the immutable letter 

(first of the Arabic alphabet) Alif 

under the ever watchful eye: 

fearsome sun, forgiving moon 

bless the magnificent hand 

all else is blasphemy, a lie 

experience quietude 

the maturity of ecstasy 

longing to utter 

the unutterable name 

only striving supreme or pure 

can ever hope to endure 

the absolute face

the awesome embrace.

By Yahia Lababidi, in A Kaleidoscope of Stories: Muslim Voices in Contemporary Poetry (Lote Tree Press, 2020)  www.lotetreepress.com