Oh the Lord is the flinger of things
          the bringer of stings

the terrifier
          the hypnotizer
                    magnifier

          a spurner
                    a burner
                             the great turner

I am burned
I have turned
and painfully learned!

I cling to the Lord of all ages
          sender of sages
                    the payer of wages

I hold tight

Live and love right

I cling

I cling

I bent the red sky
the shepherd’s delight
into a triangle for dangling
outside my door on a string

I hit it like a bell when I thought
I wanted a chime for the wind
with a Chinese sound

but you came

You entered my life on a dawn
when the clouds burned
and your eyes were hot coals

You came in the wind you
were the wind and you
startled my soul

and when it said wowwww
you lifted that word to
the heavens and He heard

I drained the sky into a tea cup
yet you smelled of coffee
and I should have known better

You haven’t sinned against me
and you’ve held me aloft as an
Olympic torch in a Spanish parade

You have covered me in kisses
like a newborn ‘tho I’m old with
eyes which protest at morning light

You have read me Qur’an and
dripped prayers and scattered
wisdom on my head while I’ve slept

You have laughed at my jokes as
though I’m funny when I know
I’m a gravel road at high speed

Your eyes still set me ablaze and I
roar as a bonfire made from the
branches of the happiest trees

And wisps of flame and sparks climb
into the jealous sky while I ****** at them
to stop them carrying away your name

She holds the sun in her right hand

And the deepest ocean pours
from her left as a Niagara of
dark expectations

flowing to me with words
that soar and swoop pecking
and clawing

Oh how I need the moon and
pull her close in a feigned kiss
while my hand creeps like a lizard

to set it free like that guy released after
thirteen years waiting for the chair

Oh how that embrace has wrecked me
as a car that followed too close

I pulled her tight to steal
what she had herself snatched
when the stars weren’t looking

Her breath was red wine and I drank
and the weight of her breast on my arm
crushed my resistance

and I loved her again oh as a universe

and let her keep it tucked away

We rode to Ta’if on a flying carpet
— a Toyota with a missing hubcap

sweeping through  fattened clouds
which clung to the hilltops like grazing bison

arriving on the otherworldly plateau that wore
the death shroud of an old hermit’s mystery

which our Prophet reached in sandals as ******
as the deck of a Nantucket whaling ship

Arabian Himalayas. He climbed like a yak
and the Lord strengthened his steps

Our taxi driver — as lost as the cheque in the mail —
poked at his satnav and called his mates

The Almighty’s beloved followed the angel and
never lost his way. He strained with pain

Our driver’s mirrored eyes intruded while we
held hands on the back seat and yawned

The Lord smiled down upon his aching friend
and eased the pain in cramping calves

A sagging mosque now hunches where the ignorant
had cast away the chance of a lifetime

Oh think if they had taken him in — Medina
would sit as a happy king on a mountain throne

I immortalised my love in a photo in that mosque
praying as a saint where our hero had struggled

I adore my captured shaikha and the memory
of when we followed in the footsteps of our Prophet

When you come
you’ll reach to take what
I’ve clutched tight

You’ve done it a lot
— especially lately

You did it to that unsuspecting lady
when she stepped off the bus
on Philpotts Road

To that sleeping girl
with the mousy hair in
the children’s ward

To her father three months later

To my own dad while he prayed
by the bed and slumped

To that old pope who shook
like a wet dog in a sou’wester

I read again last week how you visited
the homes of those who wouldn’t
splash blood on their doors

Now that’s something!

I know what you want and I’m onto you

When you come I’ll be ready — I hope
and I’ll hand it to you without protest

But I have a request, if I may, and I hope
you’ll ask on my behalf:

Please don’t visit her before you call on me

I am adrift on an upturned hull
lamenting misfortune

Her rushing words swamped my hopes
before I could turn headlong into them

I hate the horizon — that line of horror
That lifeless circle

My head spins beneath a heavy sky
which pins me like a sweating wrestler

Flattened and breathless I wait
for the wave that will drown me

All is lost

It does not come. The wind dies
and her eyes soften

She is calming

You are a mystery

I have fathomed
And know

You glide in black
The walking darkness
A moonless night

The stars I see
Are my universe
And they look with love

Their warmth touches
And a stretched hand
Offers something
Immortal

You

Golden soul
Opaque in velvet

The invisible obvious

Pious perfection

Glide in black