SILK ROAD

I met you on the silk road
So very long ago
I met you on the silk road
I thought you’d like to know
Your scarves kept out the sun
And all the dust and sand the winds of Allah could blow
Upon the silk road so very long ago


I met you on the silk road so very long ago
I thought you ought to know
When Allah’s word was heard all day
But not too loud for jasmine smells
Amidst the night we danced and loved and
burned the fires
far below, way above
Upon the silk road
Upon foundations deeper than the territory of strife


What dusty thoughts blow through the centuries
past arid lands in the pictures of your mind’s design
The rubble of civilizations crumbled
in broken stones
weathered rocks
in memories retold by bards and minstrels
upon the roads we wandered in our way


Tangled knots and chords assembled washed dried dyed
made smooth to the edge
to the touch
Designed in ancient ways of mathematics
reputed to show the way to God or passion
or their obedience to fashion
In your bed and boudoir
Your office
and ceremonial temple of exotic fragrances and tea
Not separated from the senses of sight smell and touch of the self you were so much
in the marketplace of rugs and such


Upon the silk road so very long ago
The road we’d come to know

Where the masses could not shovel rules of death and love
so cold upon the certain grave too soon
For spirits so light
So flowing in the colors of the life

The minstrel came to town a bard of many tongues and many gods whose name is one
The science of God

The theater of God
somewhere in the sand where vast imagination births a mirage that burns beyond the lonely sun
Wall-less destinies fall before the senses like jasmine sweeping by
The summer moons that glisten silken
over trades that gallop on beyond our tombs
I met you on the silk road so very long ago
The politics of God
The insights of God
The masks of God in the villages of the peoples of earth
the many colored cloths and the superstition of the lost often in the fashion of the winds of thought in the ever changing moving silk road and its mountain tops traveled walked sought
never lost
in Centuries dark or bought.
I met you on the silk road so very long ago


Perhaps the watering hole has lost a hundred names through centuries gone in rain and thundering herds
carrying swords
so their words of god could be heard
in ancient caves, tented sand dunes, water enriched oases, agrarian villages, mudded huts, market places of grain and wondrous weavings, dancing girls and knowledge
Silk road of not forgotten dreams that were no doubt travelled
in sun and rain

DIB14oct 2011