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Tír na nÓg

Sing to me Nazirah
some caravanserai ghazal
bathe me in tremulous milk from your oasis
until there is no place left in the galaxy 
save there along your fluted throat
slightly straining, eddying with song

Lull me to forget losing our child 
lull this head, whiskers whitening each day
sing it please
our hiccuped orison, our tarantella
woman and man and child
some Tír na nÓg 
untortured by embarkations

Somewhere Outside Eden

He only comes above deck after dark now
on phantasm feet that barely touch the planks
Ekimi cries into the jungle
night upon night
calling out to fled animals
the boy, me
himself too

The general's troops slaughtered your family
yet we three founded another
you and Akami and I
for a time the world was changed
now just the two of us, like the first days 
everything alters, it simply must
the river is replicating, I am evolving
but Ekimi look! I am still here
and so again could be paradise
and another, yet another after that

This boat falls silent
suffocating with your ghosts
each evening you call to me out there
some other version on a different river
each night I am summoned 
by clamouring souqs, festivals
the nocturnes of lovers
hurry Ekimi
each morning discovers
more of me stolen away

 

the latest case count is 205 with 153 deaths. Bats are being trapped in the forest