VISION IN EGYPT
rochelle holt
I’m in Cairo at the source of the Nile
seducing and seduced by my harem
as I recall my first wife’s fatal charm
her dark bedroom eyes never winked for me;
her hips were as voluptuous
curving in and out of my life with style
Our marriage was knot of tangled desisre--
strange Janus love always that involved three
like dolphin, octopus and shark in sea
I still think of myself as innocent;
Sheila had the fascination with fire
while Nina pretended she sang in choir,
some altar-girl visited by angel
who’d given up fidelity for lent
after camping under stars without tent
Now I’m perpetrator of new white lies;
but like a sly cat Sheila*¢ pulled my bell,
thrrwS me down into her deep wishing well
I’ve always understood her fractured brain,
her ghostly moods falling only to rise
her quest for adventure the only prize
In the land of finger cymbals and veils,
I appreciate Sheila’s need for rainl
her bent for intrigue and Orient train
Second divorce 1S our little secret
not hers but mine as I watch the ships sail
back to the beginning of our lost trail
She said, “You can have and eat your cake too ”
This from dreamer dancing with no regret
in river of passion with no outlet
Like Ulysses’ siren she wooed me then,
and I>i boarded Gokstad as part of crew
unconsciously aware of karmic due
Do I want her body now or her mind
or the chance to correct all that was then
when she was imperfect dove and I, wren?
We will meet again but in deception;
this time I’m not cuckold but the unkind
for shesc wrapped me around her view of time
But what if this destiny was fated
like Civil War or French Revolution?
Then there’s no running from our reunion.