Lady in a Hood

 Lady in a hood....

The dusk had fallen

The moon peeped through the white domes of the magnificient Sheikh Zayed mosque in Abu Dhabi

I quickened my pace to catch a glimpse of an etheral beauty in black purdah !

The cold of the desert on a december evening was felt in my bones ....

There was a stretch  of fine sand I had to cross to reach the milling crowds , but by then the damsel had melded into the horizon , disappearing like a mirage in the desert .

I waived my way through jostling the crowd to angry stares !!

No i cant miss her again !

It was my soul that was calling me not my mind for I was numb for long .

The long lines parted .

The sombre altar of spirituality was serene in its peace .

The marble reflected the purity of divinity .

There was an aura of inner solace undescribed in the bowels of the monument .

The whispering shuffle of foots on the Iranian carpets hardly broke the sepulchural silence .

The kaleidoscopy of the chandeliers reflected the multiplicity of humans milling below .

Where can I search for the elusive her in this hall of mirrors ?

It was like in a dream

The fog of time crept into eternity .

Awareness extended to infinity

I was lost in a trance .

I walked away

I came to stand in the moonlight .

For a change I was alone far from the crowd inside the mosque .

The dew of the grass touched my bare foot

It cooled my insides

I wanted to lie down

When I felt a presence

I knew who it was

It was her standing before me the veil removed with a beatific smile on her face !

And then I woke up it was deja vu 

Iam in Umayyad mosque in ancient city of Damascus ,Syria .

I knew i will find her 

I had searched the sepulchured city of Damascus ,its inner streets domed in ancient tunneled walkways ,sandstone fountains,walked its cobbled streets with a distant mandolin sounding its haunting strains .

The devout moved in silent piety 

I too walked and searched

I climbed a camel in sandy palmyra 

I saw Roman ruins sat in its broken strps of stadiums where gladiators had stabbed into giant lions or convicts and slaves fought to death

The hills of Sydnera and maloula searching for the hood and the lady

I was cold tired hungry and gazed into the fog and the distant city of Damascus from the Cassion hills 

I had limped through the bullet ridden walls of the old city nd its narrow streets where sufi dances and dervishes swirled on esctasy

I looked carefully amongst them for hooded mysteries 

And the i saw her standing in front of me 

The end if a search 

We walked out our hands interwined gazing into the moonlight and disappeared into the darkness .

Spun this from our visit to Sheik zayed mosue in Abu Dhabi and to Syria  .