Sol 5.6

  1. I was promised a golden porridge that resembled

    the streak of dawn upon the robe of darkness.

  2. You would see it, emerging amid the dark,

    like a steed’s mane in a time thick with dust—

  3. like a coy beauty in safflower-dyed robes,

    displaying her charms to her love-struck, ardent lover.

  4. But when my heart inclined toward it

    and my eager gaze reached out to it,

  5. my hands fell short of reaching it, until

    it seemed the molasses had been hung from the clouds.

  6. For spearpoints bar the way to the ghee,

    and a swift sword-stroke bars the way to the fire.

  7. Is that porridge—or Salma’s phantom?

    It comes visiting only in dreams.

Sol 5.6