INDECENCY

       

  
       A sense of the vanity of having to offer proof
       Of membership – of some club congratulating itself
       On its elevated philosophy with its slogans
       And tags in opposition to other clubs’ shibboleths –
       Has, since my childhood, clung to me like my own shadow, my
       Inescapable adversary, ally, faithful dog.
       What was the point?

          But now i sensed that the restaurateur, ‘Halabi’, was
       About to point me to the real behind-the-scrim purpose
       Of my trip to this town of tribes, churches, temples and mosques
       (Which i didn’t have to see to know that they existed).

                                              *

       This Galenza, he now said, be not, as you say, gone off 
       The face of this world   – Had i said that?  ‘Gone off’ sounded more
       Like a description of me or of the world’s face rotting
       And peeling off the skeleton-skull of eternity.

          Ignoring my slow open-mouthed savouring of his speech,
       Halabi said, Steward be gone to a Buddhist monkery
       –  Founded, i believe somewhere on Boulder, Colorado –
      My gasp of disbelief made him laugh, drily.    Yes, my friend,
      This I believe, because that young man himself told me so!
      I seeee, i said, not surprised, again, by someone’s blind faith.

     
       (from “fatima solagua arterra’s nudes” by Brian Chan)