Our dhow journeys 
Under the starving eye of the sun. 
Stifling islands cowled in thunderheads 
The menacing cuss of salt water 

Raise sunken wrecks of memory 
Out of a malevolent sea. 

Impenetrable as our forefathers 
Who were hard-eyed dreaming traders 
Chasing the anaesthetic of sunset and evening gods, 
Events greater than us. 

They watched Capricorn rising 
Truculent, obtuse as astrologers 

Charting the black marriage of moon and stars, 
The turbulent ikons that move 
Over our dhow's aching timbers. 

Before sunrise 
Before the spilled blood of horizon, 
We have rigged our sail's wide eye 

And are riding the swell that rolls us, 
Tall as inheritance. 
 

  
  © 2000