An I

Author: Akbar Ahmed

Just by me

sat

a slab of marble

and a thin blue chest

in my flame.

In front,

an eagle.

Splattered

feather and gore

on the cypress wall.

In the Quran

the sword of Omar

curved in agony.

Above:

an invisible electric fan

streaked breeze

inconsequently

and senselessly.

And I was

in the marble stone

that soon took

the birds broken bone

and the Arabic book

a celestial look.

The writer is the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC

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