Dusk, and a gnawing wind from the desert.
Flat the land, yellow and ochre and brown;
Halfway point: Europe behind us in sunlight and mist,
We fly to the East, towards darkness.
Endlessly flowing, the indolent sand.
Caracasses of dead things. Against the horizon
Ten camels trudge, black and biblical,
And two girls dance
With hand and ankle bells.
To the sound of beads rattling in a gourd.
It is at this time of evening when women go out to draw water
From the well that Rebekah, virgin and beautiful,
Fills the trough from her pitcher
For the camels to drink.
She will journey on these camels until she meets Isaac
Meditating in his fields.
And though she wraps her veil more closely about her, he knows her beauty and
Takes her for wife. She will become the mother
Of thousands and millions.
Anne Ranasinghe (born 1925) (born in Germany, moved to Sri Lanka in 1956) Sri Lanka
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