Let One Hundred Flowers Bloom

Here are my best-admired and loved people of the 20th century:


LET ONE HUNDRED FLOWERS BLOOM*

Let one hundred flowers bloom:

One for Albert Einstein, the most intelligent brain of the Twentieth Century and for his theory of relativity

One each for the Beatles, who with their revolutionary rock music enraptured and captured the world….their new hairstyle was almost as radical as their music

One for Anais Nin, the Cuban-American diarist, who love life was the fieriest

One for D. H. Lawrence who broke the bonds of propriety, portraying sexual intercourse poetically, not pornographically and for his penetration into the world of pre-Mexico in THE PLUMED SERPENT

One for Henry Miller, the Priapus of literature, for going even further than Lawrence did

One for Chagall, the supreme colorist of his age, who painted lovers floating in the sky, bouquets of flowers, cocks crowing, donkey heads begarlanded, all symbols of love ageless were his lovers, forever young and free!

One for James Joyce and his portrayal of Dublin in one day

One for Nizar Quabbani from Damascus who did not shun...... subjects of women and politics in the Middle Eastern sun....... Say I Love You is poetry very well done

One for Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA saying-- nothing one does in bed is immoral if it helps perpetuate love

One for Richard Bach, writer of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Illusions and One

One for Boris Pasternak and his immortal Lara and DR. ZHIVAGO

One for Margaret Mitchell, the chronicler of the Old South

One for her movie Gone With The Wind directed by Victor Fleming who also brought us The Wizard of Oz

One for Laurance Harvey's star performance in Room at the Top

One for Elvis who shook up America on the Ed Sullivan Show with his wiggily hips and rock music flips

One for Federico Fellini for La Dolce Vita

One for “old blue eyes” Frank Sinatra who I met in Las Vegas

One for Richard Burton for his portrayals of Mark Antony, Hamlet….
……….and King Arthur in Camelot which I saw in New York

One for James Dean for just being sexy and Marlon Brando too

One for Bruce Chatwin and his talk with the aborigines in THE SONGLINES

One for the Bolshoi’s rendition of Spartacus

One for Buddy Bolden………..and his invention of jazz in New Orleans……….may his Dixieland music live forever in the French Quarter………..and around the world

One for Frank Lloyd Wright whose architecture I admire

One for Antonin Gaudi—I wish his sinuous curves and organic flow….
……..would have captured the 20th century………..rather than Wright’s
Functionalism

One for Stephen Hawking, a supreme physicist

One for James Watson, father of the Human Genome Project, and Francis Frick, co-discoverers of the DNA double helix

One for Bill Gates who forever transformed the world we live in with his pc software………………..and our emails……….a nerd who became the richest man in the world

One for Walt Disney and his Disney World

One for Gandhi who freed India

One for Rachmaninoff and his Russian concertos

One each for the trio of Najinsky, Nureyev, and Barishnikov
transforming ballet with their incredible leaps and new interpretations of old renditions

One each for Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods, the alpha and omega of golfing

One for Joe Namath and Johnny Unitas, Super Bowl quarterbacks

One for Shaquille O'Neil of LSU and one for Pete Maravitch from the LSU who performed miracles on the basketball court…….and with the New Orleans Jazz

One for Mark Spitz and his five medals in swimming for the Olympics..
……………and his sexy poster

One for Dr. Christian Barnard who performed the first heart transplant

One each for Dr. Sabin and Dr. Salk who saved the world from the
mid-century plague of polio

One for Diego Rivera and his Nude with Calla Lilies

One for Frida Kahlo and her unconquerable spirit

One for Fats Domino and his Rhythm and Blues

One for Willie Nelson and his country-flavored songs

One for Henry Moore and his sculpture with holes……..making negative
Space as charged as the positive kind

One each for Gabriele d’Annunzio for THE FLAME AND William Styron
For SET THIS HOUSE ON FIRE

One for Mario Vargas Llosa for his DEATH IN THE ANDES about Peru

One for Francisco Goldman’s THE LONG NIGHT OF WHITE CHICKENS
About Guatemala

One for Salmon Rushdie for his great satiric writing in THE SATANIC VERSES and THE MOOR'S SIGH and THE GROUND BENEATH HER FEET and MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN

One for Ernest Gaines for his A LESSON BEFORE DYING

One for Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, saying--One small step for man--one giant leap for mankind

One for John Glenn, who went into space twice, at age 40 and again at age 77

One for Winston Churchill who led the free world against the forces of Nazism

One for Dwight Eisenhower who planned D-Day and the liberation of Europe

One for John Fitzgerald Kennedy whose inaugural speech contained the immortal lines--Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country

One for Woodrow Wilson who came up with idea of a League of Nations which later became the United Nations…. striving for world peace

One for Madonna who revolutionized sexual mores with her songs and costumes

One for Bob Dylan, the popular poet

One for Maria Callas and Leontine Price and Barbara Sills for their incomparable human voices

One for Diana, everybody’s Princess

One for Brigit Bardot and And God Created Woman

One for Camille Saint-Saens for the creation of his opera SAMSON AND DELILAH

One each for the greatest composers of Italian opera—Puccini and Verdi

One for Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged

One for Jean Aurel and her Clan of the Cave Bear

One for Isadora for just being herself

One for Anna Ahkmatova and Tsvetaeva—those two tragic Russian poetesses

One for Tim Severin and Thor Heyerdahl, explorers of the past

One for Tennessee Williams and his STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE

One for John Steinbeck and William Faulkner

One for Carson McCullough and her unforgettable THE THORNBIRDS

One for Elizabeth Taylor for her beauty and spirit

One for John Huston and John Ford for their magnificent movies
Plus Elia Kazan

One for Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart for Casablanca

One for George Lucas for Star Wars

One for Mary Leakey and her work on our ancestors

One for Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onasis for an extraordinary life

One for Mose Allyson

One for Gustav Klimt for the beauty he created,

One each for Dali’s clocks, Munch’s Scream, Andrew Wyeth and Christina’s World and Monet for his Waterlilies



*Mao Tse Tung

I'M LEAVING A TRAIL OF POEMS

I AM LEAVING A TRAIL OF POEMS BEHIND ME AS I GO*

I am leaving a trail of poems behind me as I go
Cycles of love poems dedicated to my loves
I hope my men will dream of me for years
Remembrance of me may even bring tears
Of the treasures and thrills that I did bestow
As we soared in the air like a swirl of white doves

I am leaving a trail of poems behind me as I go
Epic poems singing of Lilith, Simonetta, and Sandra, too
Love sonnets that end happily
Bawdy poems that stir merrily
Mock-epics of my love affairs where I couldn't say no
This wondrous collection of poems unknown but true

I am leaving a trail of poems behind me as I go
Will they make me memorable in times to come
Will readers appreciate my humor and wit
Will they get all I'm trying to get
They're an examination of all that I know
A masterpiece of my life which I lightly hum


From CARNIVAL EVENING BY Linda Pastan

2004

CIRCUMSION

CIRCUMCISION

When I queried my obstetrician
On how long circumcision had been around
In the USA
His reply was, Since the time of Moses!

I later learned the oldest record for circumcision
Comes from a royal Egyptian tomb
Dating to 2400 B.C.
Was this the time of Moses

When I inquired of nurse Marilyn Milos
Founder of NOCIRC, she replied
In this foreskin-phobic, sexually sick society
We want to market a normal penis

When I questioned Jerry Warner of Baton Rouge
His reply was even more emphatic
I'm an intact male! Nature knows best!
He said almost frantic

From Howard Sterns I got this exclamation:
On the subject of circumcision
It's barbarism and butchery
That was his final decision

From a legal point of view, lawyer David Llewellyn
The Johnnie Cochran of the Circumcised
Proclaimed circumcision is a two-billion dollar industry
New tactics have to be devised

The law against female genital mutilation
Denies equal protection for boys, he surmised
But countered Dr. Edgar Schoen, head of the 1989
Task Force on Circumcision, who being routine circumcised

States this is the best protection under the sun
With decreased amounts of urinary tract infections
HIV and penile cancer, this can be done
Do it for every son

Dr. James Roberts, Tulane professor emeritus of urology
Favored circumcision and was involved in the AAP 1989 policy reversal
Working at the Tulane Primate Center and using
Discarded foreskins from local hospitals, is this controversial

He determined that the same bacteria
Which causes kidney infections
Is the same that adheres to the foreskin
Remove the skin and remove the risk! –it has some defections

Going back in time, I read that Dr. Lewis Sayre
19th century president of the AMA
Claimed that circumcision could cure everything
From paralysis to sleeplessness in his day

Dr. Sayre proposed clitoridectomies for those
O, no, we women escaped a much worst fate
Nervous conditions of 19th century women
Let’s hope in the USA, we continue to escape it to this date

An extreme view was espoused by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg
As part of the 19th war on masturbation
He recommended circumcision without anesthesia
To combat the dreaded activity in this nation

Saying, The pain attending the operation
Will have a salutary effect upon the mind
Especially if connected with the idea of punishment
What an abomination

The ancient Greeks were astonished to learn
What the Jews were doing to their young boys
But for Jews and Muslims, too
They treat the ceremony with joy

Circumcision is a vital sign of identity
A covenant with their gods, Yahweh and Allah
A commandment which God gave to Abraham
They follow: Circumcise yourselves, every male among you

I asked Rabbi David Goldstein about circumcision
And he states that as a mitzvah, this incision
Is no issue, it's not a negation
Rather, it's an absolute and sacred obligation

In Christianity, Jesus, as a Jew
Was circumcised on the eighth day
Following his birth
That day is a feast day, for Christians on this earth

According to early Christian legends
Christ's foreskin was preserved
And handed down from pope to pope
It having great healing powers

The tribal marking of the American white middle class male today
Are we in America to be the only health-conscious country
Or are we sanctioning mass mutilation of our male population
This subject, this problem will not go away

Speaking as a woman who has had sex
With both kinds, circumcised and un
I can't tell the difference
Penises are penises and so much fun

2002

SREY RATH

SREY RATH

YOUNG, BEWILDERED, PREY OF EVIL
VICTIM OF 21ST CENTURY VERSION
OF SLAVERY, I WILL TELL YOUR STORY

WHO WILL LISTEN? WHO WILL CARE?
YOUNG GIRLS OF FIFTEEN
DESCENDANTS OF POL POT’S REGIME

WHO WILL PROTECT THEM? WHO WILL HEED
THEIR PLIGHT? NICHOLAS KRISTOF
AND I WILL. ARE THERE ANY OTHERS?

SREY WANTED TO GET A GIFT FOR HER MOTHER
TO CELEBRATE THE CAMBODIAN
NEW YEAR, TO THAILAND SHE WENT FOR TWO MONTHS

TRAFFICKERS, TRAFFICKERS IN HUMAN FLESH
HAD OTHER PLANS FOR HER
AND HER FOUR FEMALE FRIENDS, TAKING THEM

TO KUALA LUMPUR, TO A KARAOKE LOUNGE WHICH
WAS A BROTHEL, INSTEAD OF A
DISHWASHER, SREY WAS ORDERED TO HAVE SEX

HELL BEGAN FOR THESE GIRLS WHO WERE LOCKED
UP, WORKED FOR FIFTEEN HOURS
A DAY AS PROSTITUTES, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK

NEVER PAID WERE THEY, JUST GIVEN FOOD BUT
NOT TOO MUCH AS THE CUSTOMERS
WEREN’T ATTRACTED TO FAT GIRLS, THEY COULDN’T

EVER USE CONDOMS, THINK OF THIS LIFE AMERICAN
TEENAGERS WHEN YOU’RE MAD
AT YOUR PARENTS FOR TRIVIAL THINGS IN COMPARISON

HOW LUCKY YOU ARE, YOU WHO ARE DEPRESSED
WHO LIVE IN LUXURIOUS HOMES,
HAVE PLENTY OF FOOD TO EAT, ALWAYS DIETING

THINK OF SREY RATH AND HER FRIENDS, YOU LIVE
ON THE SAME PLANET BUT NOT IN
THE SAME WORLD. IS IT A MATTER OF LUCK?

THE GIRLS WOULD BE MURDERED IF THEY TRIED TO ESCAPE
BUT ESCAPE WAS THEIR ONLY HOPE
BRAVELY, COURAGEOUSLY, DARINGLY, BOLDLY, AUDACIOUSLY

THEY PRIED A BOARD OFF FROM A DRYING RACK
PUT IT OUT THE WINDOW TO THE
ADJOURNING BUILDING AND CREPT ACROSS IT


TEN FLOORS UP, DOES THIS MAKE THE FEAR FACTOR
LAUGHABLE, THEY KNEW THEY
COULD DIE BUT THEY’D DIE IN THE BROTHEL AS WELL

MAKE IT THEY ALL DID AND TOOK THE ELEVATOR DOWN
OUTSIDE THEY FOUND A POLICE STATION
WITH SOME OF THE WORST SCUM YET ON THIS BLEEDING PLANET

AT FIRST THE POLICEMAN TURNED THEM AWAY BUT LATER
ARRESTED THEM FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
SREY SPENT A YEAR IN A MALAYSIAN PRISON, UPON HER

RELEASE, MORE NIGHTMARES ENSUED AS A MALAYSIAN POLICEMAN
SOLD HER TO A TAXI CAB DRIVER WHO SOLD HER
TO A THAI MAN OF LAW WHO SOLD HER TO A THAI WHORE HOUSE

SREY WAS THANKFULLY ABLE TO BREAK OUT AGAIN AND SUCCESSFULLY
MADE IT HOME TO HER ANXIOUS PARENTS. AMERICAN
AID FOR CAMBORDIA SPENT FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS, BUYING FOR HER

A CART WITH VARIOUS TRINKETS, NECKLACES, BELTS TO SELL. SREY IS
NOW AN ENTREPRENEUR MAKING MONEY FOR
HERSELF AND HER FAMILY. THIS STORY HAS A HAPPY ENDING

NOT LIKE SOME WHERE THE GIRLS HAVE TO REVERT TO SELLING
THEMSELVES AGAIN. THINK TWICE WHEN YOU
SEE A BEAMING FACE OFFERING YOU SOMETHING TO BUY

PURCHASE A FEW TRINKETS FROM AS MANY AS POSSIBLE BECAUSE
YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU’RE SAVING THEM
FROM, YOU’RE GIVING THEM A PRICELESS COMMODITY, THE ABILITY

TO CHOOSE WHAT THEY DO WITH THEIR LIFE, FREEDOM FROM
COERCION FROM PREDATORS WHO PLAGUE
THEM, A CHANCE TO LIVE, BE FREE, WITH THEIR FAMILY AND FRIENDS

IS THIS ASKING TOO MUCH? WE NEED TO EMANCIPATE THOUSANDS
OF GIRLS LIVING CAGED UP AS ANIMALS
FOR THE PLEASURES OF MONEY-PAYING MEN AS THEIR CLIENTS

AND THE EVIL PURSUERS WHO LURE, CAPTIVATE, CAPTURE THEM,
THE INNOCENT, NAÏVE YOUNGS GIRLS OF THE
THIRD WORLD WHO DESPERATELY CRY OUT FOR OUR HELP

Thanks To Nicholas Kristof for this story I read in the New York Times on January 26, 2005.
I have borrowed some words and phrases from your amazing piece of journalism.

DUA KLAHID ASWAD

Du’a, O, Du’a,
You died for love, stoned to death,
Stoned to death by relatives because
You had eloped with your love, what
A perverted Romeo and Juliet story,
Du’a was a Kurd, a Yazidi teenager,
But eighteen years of age, the Sunni
Cleric, who converted her to Islam
And also performed the marriage, told
Her it was safe to return to Beshiqa,
Her village, to be with her family, but
Word got around about this impure
Relationship, her relatives and members
Of the community, who were outraged,
They marched to her father’s home and
Persuaded him to release her to them,
And then proceeded to stone here, yelling
And shouting out of their minds, the
Authorities did nothing to stop them as
The scene was videotaped on cell phone
Cameras and shone around the world,
Retaliations have been fierce by al-Qaida
Executing twenty Yazidi taken from a bus
And then four suicide bombings took place
Simultaneously on August 14, 2007, killing
175 people, I will memorialize you
Duaa Khalid Aswad
A Yazidi martyr, your religion doesn’t
Believe in evil, sin, damnation or the
Devil, I wonder how they will explain
What happened to you, the religion
Also doesn’t condone stoning, it is led
Here on earth by the chief Archangel,
Malak Taus, the Peacock Angel, who
Rules with the six others, the breaking
Of divine law is expiated by way of
Metampsychosis, transmigration of souls,
As souls attain progressive purification
Of their spirits

August 14, 2007

THAT ONE LOST CHORD DIVINE

I have sought,*
But seek it vainly, that one lost chord divine,*
The one by which thy wouldst ere now be
Mine, by all that’s been fashioned, wrought
It should be so, but alas, I know it in my
Heart, such a fantasy, will never be, we
Shall remain evermore separated, apart,
My spirit to such rapturous states would
Ascend, when I was naïve and trusted in
Your word, but at present, those songs I
Sang, go unheard, unfortunately, I am at
The bitter end, alas, never to dwell in that
Glorious, magnificent realm, no celestial
Blue eyes, nor mirthful laugh to overwhelm

*Mary Francis Ronald

August 21, 2007

THE FAR SHORE A MOIST ABSTRACTION

The far shore,*
A moist abstraction, mistily, like a mirage,*
Can we ever reach this mysterious site,
Whose scope and spread we know not of,
The hidden, the unforeseen, the future,
Best we do not know—what is in store,
Events can come at you as a swift barrage,
Oftentimes you can feel the sting of a bite,
Or the gentle nudge of a sudden shove,
Better to bind your wounds, bandage, suture,
Then to go out in the wilderness unprepared,
Hoping that this time you will be spared,
But for me I am always willing to take a chance,
That is the beauty of a life lived for romance

*White on White by Mark Abbey

August 15, 2007

Fate Whose Slave I Never Was

Fate, whose slave I never was*
And henceforth—shall never be
I shall chart my own course, does

An eagle obey another bird’s command
As he flies majestically along his
Own current, or a crab in the golden sand

Bow to other crustaceans as he comes
Onto the shore, or a ram on the crags of
Mountain heights, searching for some

Scraggly piece of grass, or the polar bear
Numbed in frozen Artic waters fighting for
His fish, like them, I am free to choose, to dare

Destiny’s path in my life, and never regret
What I have chosen, and wonder what lies
Ahead, ceaselessly, defying, denying kismet

* MERANI by Nicoloz Baratashvili

BANGLADESH

Your nationhood is young—yet—
Already—it is compromised—
What a toll your republic took—
Three million lives, three million—
Fighting for a shared—Bengali—heritage—
A communal language, culture, literature—
Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian—
A secular, democratic, socialist country—
Was formed in nineteen seventy-one—
Your geography encompasses the delta—
Of the sacred river Ganges—
Your geography encounters mammoth floods—
Sometimes taking the lives of over—
One hundred thousand people—
You retain People’s Republic, not Islamic
Freedom of religion, freedom of speech—
A fatwa issued on Taslima Nisreen—
Lajja on you, leaders of Bangladesh—
Women Prime Ministers allow abuse of women—
Journalists Without Borders condemns you—
Never let fundamentalists rule!

March, 2004

Cut Is So Deep

Sometimes the cut is so deep
No woe-in-me tale is enough*
This cut is my December seventh
My nine eleven,
My I can’t-live-without-him tale

Each story has a gory monster
But I never would have pictured him
I never thought he would be the star
My fiend, my ogre
In the my-life-is-so-depressing saga

Lives can change, you can live with anything
If you have what you can’t live without
He taught me how sudden, how profound
My loneliness can be
I-don’t-want-this-to-happen-to-me now

*Love by Toni Morrison

I FOUND HER ON THE BEACH

I found her on the beach
Covered by just a few inches of water
A small scratch on her forehead
It didn’t mar the beauty of her face
Her lovely body lay there
Her hand entwined in that
Of a small child
My fiancé and I had been separated
By the tsunami waves
That came upon the Sri Lankan land
How could it be that in an instant
She is gone, departed
Her beauty is there
But her being is not

I CRAVE YOU IN OTHER MEN'S BODIES

I crave you in other men’s bodies…..sexual
Bodies…..with big dicks attached to lean muscles
……ready to do to me many of the acts you did….
But always a little different….they have their own
Special ways…..I forget you when I’m with them….
But then they leave…..and you remain in my thoughts…..
I can’t get you out of my mind…..my cravings
.......for you come stalkingly back…..
I can’t lose you…..I can’t forget…..
You told me to keep on with my life…..that’s what I’m doing
…..but nothing helps….what’s going to happen to me…..
I guess that depends on what’s happening to you…..
I will go on with this sexual carousel…..
How many men will it take to forget…..fail to remember you…..
Will I have to exist….. to exist……
For it’s really not living…..
From now on….. I don’t know…..can anyone ever know
.............When love becomes unhinged…..

THE AFTERNOON IS URBAN

The afternoon is urban—
The streets are peopled with footsteps
Somewhat luminous—
Shadows are silhouetted on skyscrapers
And our love’s gone wrong – *
The sun’s shimmering sunset
The exodus to the suburbs –
The red bud and azalea are in full bloom—
The bells are chiming
What are we to do—
Sit on an iron bench in Jackson Square
A full moon and Venus appears
Eternity drips away, inch by inch, inside us—*
Tarot card readers beckon
Can they tell us about the stars—
They are born and die just like us
All explorer’s die of a broken heart—*
Is this a saying—it isn’t true
How can we fix our love—
Explore our inner beings
Maybe a clue we’ll find—
Somewhat mysterious
Fading sunlight on the water in the fountain—
Will our love fade away
Like the shadows, like the sun—
The afternoon is urban
Electricity is in the air—
A quickening in our souls
Tankers glide by on the river—
What exotic ports are they bound
Somewhat imaginary—
The river Mississippi
Each second it changes—
And what of our love
Do we want to explore—
A horse and buggy clip-clodding
The sound of a trumpet—
Wafting in the breeze
Music is illusionatory—
Where does love go
When it is over—
Does it fade away
Or is it reborn somewhere else—
The afternoon is urban
The pigeons are feeding at our feet—
The smell of beignets
Beckons us—

*Black Zodiac by Charles Wright

WOEFUL TALE OF EGYPT

‘Tis a woeful tale of Egypt, I tell:
Glorious land of the Pharoahs,
Renowned for its magnificent tombs,
Its unequalled pyramids, its decorative flumes,
A new force is among them, new foes,
In the font of western civilization’s citadel!

This saga is the story of one man:
A professor of Islamic studies at Cairo University,
He had a decade-long dispute*
With Dr. Abdel-Sabour Shahin whose repute,
As an extreme Muslim fundamentalist, no diversity
Allowed, he espoused a strict interpretation of the Koran.

It all commenced in the year nineteen ninety-three:
When reading his paper one morning, he found,
Dr. Nasr Hamed Abu Zeid read that a blasphemy case,
On what, he wanted to know, had the accusation been based,
He was brought to trial, found safe and sound,
Accused of being an apostate, of breaking the law of apostasy!

It began in nineteen ninety-two when his promotion:
His promotion to full professor was denied,
Two academics praised his Koranic research,
But were swayed by a third who like a pulpit was perched,
Vehemently, opposed to everything on Zeid’s side,
This colleague, Shahin, caused quite a commotion!

At this time the newest victim of Islamic militants:
The only Egyptian Nobel Prize winner for literature,
Naguib Mahfouz had been shot in nineteen ninety-four,
While fellow writer Farag Foda was murdered before,
In nineteen ninety-three nearly half a million endured,
Friday prayers where Zeid was declared a heretic at a glance!

At the Giza Primary Court, the trial took place:
This unassuming, private, timid scholar who taught,*
Who had studied the works of Aristotle, Averroes, *
Kant, Marx and Engels but didn’t advocate the overthrows,
Of any government, just one feud he fought,
With Dr. Shanin, who challenged him to his face.

Egypt had no apostasy law so the trial was held under family law:
Having written and published twelve treatises, twelve books,
He was now accused of being blasphemous,
No one could he truly trust,
He was accosted by strange noises and dirty looks
He didn’t understand everything he saw!

Nasr Abu Zeid was being sued for divorce:
Not by his wife, who he had married late in life,
At age forty-nine, a fellow professor, she,
Ebtehal Younes, fifteen years younger than he,
Widely traveled daughter of an Egyptian diplomat, his wife,
Slim, attractive, outspoken feminist, a fiery force.

The case was based on a ninth-century Shariah law called hisbah:*
Any Muslim may sue before a court,
If he believes that Islam is being harmed,
If he is just greatly alarmed,
Poor Zeid was like a ship with no port,
His wife remained loyal to him, he thought with a sigh!

The case was brought by a group of Islamic lawyers acting:
On his wife’s behalf, at first without her knowledge,
And later without her consent,
They were just hell bent,
On punishing Zeid for his writings, his books they pledged
To burn, he to be banished from teaching, have no backing!

Muslim women may not marry outside of their faith:
If blasphemous Zeid’s writings were duly deemed,
His happy marriage would be dissolved,
These Islamic extremist were deeply involved,
In Zeid’s personal life to an extent that it seemed,
They were crucifying him for his professional belief!

Some of the defense attorneys hadn’t heard of hisbah before the trial:
These religious fanatics thought it was their Islamic duty,
To defend Ebtehal against her will,
Devoted disciples of Dr. Shahin, they were instilled,
With zealot passion and fervor, with bizarre prudity,
How could this happen on the banks of the Nile!

Before the trial, sheikhs began at prayers on Friday:
Backed by the power of the distinguished al-Azhar,
The oldest university in the world,
Zeid’s enemies with their slogans unfurled,
Apostate, Repent, repent, they created a war,
These men who had never read his books were fully in the fray.

In January of nineteen ninety-four, Zeid received a reprieve:
In the lower court he was found innocent,
But in Egyptian law, unlike American,
An innocent verdict can be appealed, there is no ban,
The Court of Appeals, what a horrible precedent,
Found him guilty, a guilty verdict did he receive.

He was found guilty of propagating the view:*
That certain Koranic references to angels, devils and genies,
Should not be taken literally
But as metaphors they were meant to be
He challenged the Koran as the word of god, as it he sees
Over him and his case, a cold wind blew!

The court had no jurisfiction to declare anyone an apostate:
No apostasy law did Egypt have at that time,
Zeid had convicted himself, three judges found,
Lost his right to be married to a Muslim woman, he was bound
With his writings that were treated as committing a crime,
He had to abide by the court order to divorce his mate!

The Court of Cassation upheld the verdict of the Court of Appeals:
Although the Constitution enshrined freedom of belief,
There was a difference between belief that was spoken
And belief in the mind, this was a token
That the Constitution wasn’t the law of the land, no relief
Was coming for Abu Zeid, there would be no deals!

A group of Islamic scholars from al-Azhar called on the government:
To carry out the punishment for apostasy,
According to orthodox Shariah law the punishment
Was death, death was the verdict sent,
Zeid with his wife fled to the Netherlands, fleeingly,
To Leiden University, to escape death, they went!


*Portrait of Egypt by Mary Anne Weaver

ABE NOT AN ABECEDARIAN

Hail, day of joy, two-headed Janus begins this new year
Brings me my lascivious lover to provide me with cheer

The only god who is able to see behind himself, is that a good sign
Brings me the one who makes my senses scintillatingly shine

A ring from the telephone leads to a tumultuous assault
His sexual prowess I want to exceedingly exalt

In a ferocious fervor, he thrust his twisted dick upon me
From that moment I was lost in the throngs of ecstasy

Fireworks went off as assail me he did and I clamored for more
No novice, my Abe, he knew all the rudiments, yea, we did explore

Every position, some new, some tried and true, of lusty love-making
Mesmerized, enchanted, captivated, enthralled, I was his for the taking

My lover, primero, on this primary day, a good portent
For the coming year, he will return again, make me content