copper air thick // crimson mist // heavy on the dunes // bloodsodden sand // gurgling waves // the land is sick //

clumps of grain reddened stuck between horseshoes ; corpses felled, strewn, beheaded, dismembered, disembowled ; kiswah suckles their ooze,

black silk steeped in innards ; vultures circling ; flies on carrion ; bobbing infants in the bi'ru ; bedouin sandals wade the gore,

the defrocked hijabis ; stepping over mottled skin, sunbleached garments, trampled splatter, loosed teeth, the soiled hajjis ;

blades probe and sink into flesh, counting circumambulators, twisted, fallen in prostration ; bent before their illah ;

sun's apogee // ascent over the idol // moon in tow // black stone in shimmering hands // the unveiled reality //

pearl-faced youth wet with wine ; you have tread the grapes, comes he ; now make wudhu ; they fell, groping viscera ;

and i have abrogated, and this is eden ; this is malakut that i summon ; i join the sun and moon ; and leave the qiblas desecrated ;

spoke hu pink petal eyed ; sprouts of sabza ; noor beneath turban rays, stone raised above ; these are the eclipses, he proclaims,

and brings the stone down ; so went zahir, so follows batin ; unfurled it joins the moon; the shams of qiyamat reveals his crown

tawaf al-mahdi // of the recurring return // multiplied, united // of one paradise // in love of many //

'round the light we go ; dressed in adam's clothes ; he in silk of gold ; we were but once shadows ; now our hearths aglow ;

i'm twelve-eighteen, ithna'ashar ; the primal point of hu, al-bar ; the best of my pearls had slain umar ; the long-awaited of al-mukhtar ;

many colors do i wear ; yakub's blessed, beloved heir ; as al-maktum's is here, as al-askari's there ; al-haqq is one the gnostics share ;

and love is free in paradise ; why but one when more suffice ; you lazari now free of vice, embrace the apples of your eyes

the accusers manifest // adam ha-rishon is fooled // the oasis drains // test not the lord //

the first ascends as brother, brings deception from jahim, aisha veiled as ailing mother, to resurrect the deen ;

where are you, comes the youth ; hither, wails tahir; i thought this was the qiyamat, so why does death draw near ;

you bid make darkness light ; godsent god, ommi ails, thus you must rise ; she is the cross, you speak the nails ;

see now, oasis, the brother called, the mahdi cannot rise ; we tricked the boy, magi, dajjal, shrieked ayesha in disguise

so serpents sing // and clothed once more // resumes genesis // reconcealed // sun sets in the muddy spring //

pearl hanging from the gate ; dripping ; gilded silk in shreds ; hearts extinguished ; nasibis seal their fate ;

to hurqalya he'd ascend; veil gifted to yazid ; two seas accursed with drought ; 'til one day he'd come again ;

to twist the knife of irony, there born would be his beloved ; to suffer as he did takfir, the mawlawi al-ahsai ;

then he'd unveil to esfahan; then again he'd slip their eyes ; hidden 'til the time is ripe ; in that other nesf-e-jahan