Ingots pass the Dubai day
away,
rocketing to make Zamyatin’s We
a shadow of its predicatory
ennui.
Some select the marina
walkway
in a September bereft of
breeze.
I took with me Tsvetayeva to
be
a fellow passer-by; here
she’d say
“think of me
simply”—(yesterday,
now)—“and simply forget of me.”
Marina, I have no such
disease.
I am among those folks who
run
the plains and edges of the
world;
visions, muse-like melodies
swirl,
luring faux oases to a desert
sun.
I needn’t plunge into the shoal.
Instead, I’ll walk marinas
where
they lie and run among land
lives.
Laborers amass in the city’s
hives:
as fellow aliens, they might
stare
to say ‘think of me’ in this
hole.
Ingots that we are we’ll
gravitate
to safeboxes &
combination codes
to settle self-reliance. Our
in-roads
imperceptible, the myriads
await
a worthwhile tally of our
worth.
It stands to reason, then, in
Dubai
a reader of Tsvetayeva may
barely
pass you by. A lizard
brightly green
rustles leaves which whisper
why
we run to greater clods of
earth.
My first thoughts after reading this poem were to remember, but not well enough, that you had once shared another Dubai poem, Dan - what was it? I’d like to go back to it - and then to consider that we haven’t had any short stories from you lately. And I didn’t know who this Tsvetayeva was, and wasn’t sure what Katrina would have to say about her, but somehow I wanted more than a poem. I was all set to challenge you to write a short story set in Dubai, with the main character named Tsvetayeva. And make it third person, to avoid any confessionals, to better think then forget.
ReplyDeleteBut then I started digging into the poem, or at least its two prominent allusions. Zamyatin’s We! I had never heard of this glass passage dystopia, as I’ve never been to Dubai, but there seemed to be a connection! And Marina Tsetayeva: I never heard of her either but a few sample poems I found online were intriguing, inviting me to read more.
I will still give you that challenge. But I’m also drawn to go back and read your poem again, and encourage others to do so, and also to read more of Marina.