Mirage / Watermarked – by SHEIKHA A.

 

Mirage

 

the hills are steep, my eyes heavy

chanting of sleep

 

the hull nest of the sea’s urchins

have laid still

 

so calm is the body

on which the moon bathes

the sand on the land gilt of true light

 

the knowledge of nothing,

the manger of fish

 

that didn’t get caught in the nets

by the song of the waves

for there was a rising heat

from the east of the sea

 

curdling under pounding of hooves

the race of shields

 

far where the trees grew winds

out of their eyes

 

mine fell steeper into a lull-less sleep

 

---

 

 

Watermarked

 

(inspired from Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Fisherman and His Soul’)

 

clasp me in a shroud of opal

and take me

 

to the bottom of your seas

where your castle is a joyous

 

cave of jewels, the wistful moon

shall throw none

 

of its laments over the walls

of your determination

 

to see my soul snared

in the sceptre of your being;

 

this is how it’s going to be:

I shall be entranced and entombed

 

in the melodies you sing, you shall

be the merman with the ruby harp

 

and I shall be the woman with legs

that cannot paddle water

 

but run on shores, giving away

lines of my fate under my feet

 

to an indifferent sand,

then wait for your promised tides

 

before the sun bares our will

to the scrupulous light

 

as the night wraps me in its spell

 

have I fallen

into a dream

 

or fallen

from one –

 ***

Sheikha A. is from Pakistan and United Arab Emirates. Her work appears in over 70 literary venues both online and print, along with several anthologies by different presses, the history of which can be accessed on her blog, sheikha82.wordpress.com. She has edited and co-edited two separate anthologies released by Poets, Artists Unplugged , and has had her poetry recited at two separate reading events in Greece. She edits poetry for eFiction India.