What words come from jealousy?
The walls of encircling palaces
and a barely traceable line.
The market became many markets
as the Prophet became many men,
and, at the hand of the cloth seller,
the Caliph whispered
I am not he.
The disguise of a distempered Araby.
The world from Cairo to Bukhara.
At the highest point,
the stone heart of the city,
the richness of a religious heart
turned.