Nightsport

 

The grey shadows of an

overcast afternoon in

the woods have crept away

no longer there, and in their

place a darker shadow has

fallen, stifling the dim light

that lingers without hope

of prevailing for there

is no forestalling nightfall

chasing dusk's brief warning.

And so, the forest sighs

and prepares for sleep, while

prey whisper urgent messages

hiding in their havens, and

predators prepare to emerge

onto their hunting fields

sharpening tooth and talon

preparing to greet nature's

nocturnal challenge to the

pursuit of species survival.

 

 

For Whom The Bells Toll

They flee the infamously corrupt and

oppressive regimes where tribal and

sectarian violence and ancient traditions

of honour compel clans to carry forward

vengeance from generation to generation.

Lands of oil sheikdoms, kingdoms and

theocracies dedicated to the preservation of

tyrants and warmongers where the populace

must comply for the barest whisper of

discontent or public display of brazen

defiance results in wholesale slaughter. 

Seeking refuge they arrive as refugees or

migrants, emigrating to lands of freedom

to speak as they will, live as they wish

relishing the liberty to worship and to 

express their rejection of elements of the

new social contract. As their numbers

increase diluting the influence of the

indigenous to the country, emboldened

they yearn for their religion and their

inherited values of yore to dominate. Time

and patience, allied with the impetus of

fervour and righteousness in the precepts

they deem sacred elevates their influence

even as they proselytize and gain adherents

while the pendulum swings heavily toward

a distortion of justice, equality and values

balancing social mores to the detriment of

those viewed by the avowedly racist horde

as enemies of their culture, their religion

their social structure and primal antipathies.

The progression from refuge to dominant

violence singling out victims and persecutors

ring in the new reality as the bell tolls for thee.

Countering Annihilation

The armchair generals and world leaders

of a certain disposition, delighted to once

again find opportunity to express their

shocked reaction to an incident of conflict

whereby Israel and its Defense Forces are

condemned, in lock-step with the United Nations

Human Rights Council's demands for a ceasefire

all of which pleasure the Islamic Republic of Iran

and Hamas no end, proving their tactics of

bitter victimhood while victimizing those they

claim oppress them have won the support of

the international community which clamours

its approval of an 'underdog' launching endless

deadly raids against the people and the state

whose existence brings emotional discomfort

even as its rebirth as the historical Judaean

homeland brings emotional comfort and the

assurance of security to Jews themselves. In

responding to the never-ending series of savage

slaughters by dedicated murderers programmed

from birth to cunningly present as the oppressed

launching martyrs' brigades of lethality against

the Jewish State and Jews everywhere, the world

draws breath in horror at the inevitable consequence

of declarations of war, holding responsible the

recipient of obscene acts of terror, yet never the

terrorists proud of their mission of disbursing death

offering their own population as willing martyrs

while the terror leaders and their terrorist state 

sponsors evade consequences and preserve their

own lives, promising that no power on Earth will

deter them from ongoing bloodbaths for Jews

and Israel stands condemned for its existential 

refusal to go quietly into that dark night, in the

process demonstrating its singular power on Earth.

 

The Sisterhood of Woke

Their warped minds have become legendary

those harridans and harpies whose wrath

shrivels courage in the minds of others who

might, principles intact, protest and challenge

the assertions and demands that have turned

the public discourse and the social compact

not to mention the very science of nature's

biology inside out in their twisted rage. They

ferociously champion issues and beliefs in

their versions of human nature, alert and prepared

to challenge any who might question blatant

absurdities dividing people into categories of

victims and oppressors, male and female, worthy

and trans-unworthy, unleashing upon the world a

totally new and absolutely perverse rendition of

reality they will protect tooth and nail as they

ravish reputations and isolate, mock and condemn

contradiction of their nature-averse world view

as they seek to destroy normalcy and logic in human 

relations in recognition of men as women who

as women still rape women, as female athletes

out-sporting biological women, herding children

diagnosed as gender dysphoric toward life-altering 

surgeries to match their juvenile delusions, intent on

thundering abuse at white privilege's dominance 

over colonized people of colour as they rant and

roar mandated respect for the lunatic absurd even

as intersectionality overtakes the world of reason.

 

 

It Was a Very ? Year

 

The year I was born my parents greeted

their first-born child, with three more

to follow at substantial intervals, all

to an immigrant family living in pride and

poverty, escapees from racial bigotry

social and institutional violence seeing

no possible future for themselves where

they were born. It was, coincidentally the

year that Nazi Germany denied the 

League of Nation having any business

interfering in the way it treated Jews. In

that year of 1936 Britain's King George

died, making way for the ascension of

Edward VIII; Hitler opened the 4th

Winter Olympics; 4 million French workers

went on strike; racists almost beat Leon Blum

to death; the Hindenburg had its first test

flight; Hitler broke the Treaty of Versailles

Jews were warned of arrest should they

attempt to vote; Italy, Austria and Hungary

signed the pact of Rome; Britain, the U.S.

and France signed a naval accord; Italy

firebombed Harar, Ethiopia; Arab

highwaymen near Nablus killed three Jews

Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Jaffa

General Francisco Franco began the

Spanish civil war; The "Nazi Games" of

the 11th Olympic games opened in Berlin

Benito Mussolini celebrated his "axis"

with Nazi Germany; A British Royal

Commission investigated the underlying

cause of anti-Jewish riots which the Arab

Higher Committee boycotted; Japan and

Nazi Germany signed the Anti-Komintern

pact; Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia

Kazakhstan and Kirghistan joined the USSR

Edward VIII abdicated for Wallis Warfield 

Simpson; and humble me was born.

 

The Ancient Tapestry of Light

 

Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. ⁴ And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.

He sat on the yellow soil comprised of sand and clay, legs folded under his torso, hands held in an imploring gesture before the deliberately heedless throng. His white dishdashah was no more stained than that of most, and his keffiye neatly arranged on his head; his grey beard as indicative of age, as their own grizzled faces. His eyes, they were different. They were not, in fact quite there. They were rheumy, running hollows, to which bottle flies were attracted, distracting him from attracting the attention of those who might give alms.

They turned away from him, despite the Q'uranic injunction to charity, for his appearance was repulsive and it shamed them also, that there were amongst them some whose need was clearly greater than theirs. And theirs was great enough.

He, caring little for their disgust, entreated them to pity and to do the will of Allah in recognizing his need. He shifted his position on the ground, vainly attempting to find comfort, and his visage took on the savage look of misery incarnate, his shapeless lips no longer forming the grimace he thought represented a smile.

Carrion-seeking birds, vultures with their red-ringed heads and long wrinkled necks thrust forward, crested the sizzling sky. Dust was everywhere, circulating in the lower atmosphere, clogging peoples' throats and nostrils, and those of their livestock. It settled, mud-yellow, on everything; the lintels of their homes, roofs, worn carpeting placed over olive, oil and water jugs. Building interiors were neatly inlaid with dust, particles of the cosmos, infinitesimally minute atoms representing everything and nothing.

Dust stifled the air of the marketplace, the plaintive voices of the women, heads carefully covered in deference to the Q'uran's injunction to female modesty, complaining about the steadily rising prices of mutton, fowl, dates, figs and grain. Risen too steeply for their liking, for their ability to pay. Mothers reached down to slap small hands that crept to the top of stalls hoping to snatch a nutmeat. Infants slung across their mothers' chests, held by stout linens, bawled in a disorder of animal and human sounds.

A hawk streaked the sky over a copse of date palms, shrilling. Wispy grey clouds, barely seen against the particulate matter crowding the canopy of the sky reflected the tattered grey of once-white garments. Glancing toward the west, squinting eyes could make out a sun-dog, portending some atmospheric change, perhaps another khamsin, perhaps a clearing of the sky to something resembling blue, inviting the overhead sun to bake the ground and burn bare feet.

In the near distance rose a curvaceously slender minaret, needling God's overheated sky. Cicadas buzzed the atmosphere. The sound of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer rang out and resounded in the still, torrid atmosphere. The hum of the crowd became muted, faded, as all turned; the women removing themselves from male proximity, to prostrate themselves facing Mecca.

The lyrical melody of a prayer as familiar as one's beloved's face piously rose to the heavens, toward Allah's patiently demanding hearing and benign approval, as his people surrendered for the third time that day to daily prayers.

In the courtyard of the Khedive's palace, roses, peonies, lilies, Persian cornflowers, delphiniums, safflower and red poppies thrived in vivid array and brilliant colour, sending their fragrance throughout the generously measured space. Where also grew olive trees, willows, pomegranate and bitterweed. Also acacia, wild celery, dill, henna and mint.

The cooling, tinkling sound of a water fountain fetched the senses to swooning, as the water fell gracefully back into the shaped pond wherein swam golden- and silver-hued fish among the blue water lilies and papyrus plants. A small, wrinkled man busied himself snipping spent flowers, stopping now and again to inhale, when a broad smile would overtake his toothless mouth.

Not a hint of cooling breeze to be felt anywhere. Not in the souk, nor along the dusty alleys, or in the palace courtyard. Within the seraglio, sensuous, full-bodied women with kohl-described, smouldering eyes spread their languid limbs on colourful divans. Within this area could be heard the melodic whispering of the fountain as it circulated in the dry air.

A grossly overweight Eunuch, his taut skin glistening with sweat, fanned himself desultorily, in a vain effort to find relief from the sweltering, gasping heat. He sat in the doorway, eyes vacant, dreaming of another place, where his ancestors had dwelt and of which he had heard whispered longings from his parents before he had been whisked mysteriously away in the night as a child, to this place.

The white, diaphanous fabric of the women's garments served to accentuate their voluptuous flesh, lovingly scented with aloe. Their pale skins glistened too, in those places which remained uncovered, but they were not dreadfully overheated, for large feathered fans moved the air about them, handled with ease by cherubic-looking little black boys, unclad but for a loincloth.

The women's soft voices resounded in gentle probing questions; one of the other, in solicitous regard, humming through the sumptuously appointed chamber within which they spent their days. One inhaled a water pipe. Another plucked the strings of an oud, a second held a tambourine.

The wing holding their many children was not far away and they might visit at will, but their duties lay here, looking beautiful, rested, inviting. Entertaining themselves. Engaging in the kind of gossip women thrive upon; their own inimitable, useful and socially binding transference of news. Besides which, they were all to one another, sisters, mothers, companions in bondage.

Their latest intrigue was the introduction of another, younger woman. A girl, really, but more than adequately nubile. Her introduction awaited verification of her intact hymen. They knew little of her, but that she came from afar, and was not of their tribes , nor a familiar of the clans. She would need to be comforted, they knew. Abbad Pasha did not tolerate discord in his harem.

A slave, young and graceful, carried a tray of refreshments. Dates, and grapes, and watered wine and pomegranate juice. Nectarines, kumquats, nuts and sesame paste. The fruit was welcome, and the young man was as well, for young as he yet was, he was beautiful, too. The women rose to surround him and tease him, and he blushed as their hands ran softly over his arms and his legs.

At the souk, a camel herder cursed as his lead camel ventured too close to the food-bearing stalls, and hit the beast repeatedly on its back, its snout, kicked it viciously to encourage it to back away and begin anew. Its outraged groans elicited no sympathy. Stalls laden with nuts, grains, dried fish and olives stood out in the main traffic area where most people shopped. Linens and rancid hides were to be had there.

Closer to the protective walls of the palace stood small semi-enclosed shops with copper objects, silver jewellery, linen garments and woven rugs. Slippers, leatherwork redolent of curing camel urine, along with tablahs, and dumbeks, and mizmars could be had there, as well. Not for most, but there for those whose wherewithal was equal to the prices of these esteemed objects. The occasional palanquin moved through the crowd in the torpid heat.

The beggar half-heartedly swatted the flies that plagued his existence, before finally realizing dusk was falling and he had no further hope of charity this accursed day. He awaited the appearance of his eldest son, upon whom he would lean as they hobboled back to their hovel.
He steeled himself to accept the burden of bringing nothing of value back with him.

He longed, in his fevered mind, for the impossible; a return to the time when his wife's adolescent face beamed whenever she saw his approach, her esteemed uncle. His eyes had been capable of feasting hungrily on her youth, grace and beauty. Now what greeted him was her silent reproach, and the plaintive mewling of their malnourished children.

His tormented spirit shrieked in haunted agony that would give him no peace. First, light left his eyes, leaving him in a dark universe of bitter disaffection and abandonment. Then, the light of belief had abandoned him. He had submerged himself in the poison of despondency, apostasy, denied the comfort of eternal Paradise.

Woe betide him.

God is the Light of the heavens and the earth;
the likeness of His light is as a niche
wherein is a lamp
(the lamp is a glass,
the glass as it were a glittering star)
kindled from a Blessed Tree,
an olive that is neither of the East nor of the West
whose oil wellnigh would shine, even if no fire touched it:
Light upon Light
(God guides to His light whom He will)

Do Unto Others

A simple question to which there appears

no rational response: What accounts for the

formidable reputation inspiring fear and loathing

in the minds of populations scattered throughout

the world, of the presence of a vanishingly small

number of those whose numbers represent a

mere fraction of a fraction of humanity within

a fractured world? Dragons never seen but given

credit for malevolent hostility toward humanity

no longer perturb the minds of the gullible who

since time immemorial have focused on the

intolerable presence of a people whose acumen

and abilities in every sphere of human endeavour

is outstanding, bringing benefit to the entire species

yet though they excel in the arts and sciences remain

viewed with suspicion and raging blame for all

misfortune visited upon humanity, earning deadly

ire that translates to violent rejection and a further

diminishing of their physical presence. While

despised as a people, they are held to a high level

of expectation through the human contract of regard

for others for which they have never required any

tutelage; their collective conscience and values in

a world of rejection a beacon of light in the dark.