POETRY

Dervishes

A poem of delight and celebration of those special people you meet in special places — in this case, Kabul.

Photo by Wojtek Mich on Unsplash

Dervishes

All of a sudden, on the grass in front of us,
they broke out the fire and whirled around,
cutting the darkness into curves and shapes,

individually and together, unrehearsed — juggled
flaming sticks into the air, mouth-blew flame,
and finally, with a flourish, swallowed flame.

She researched Sufism, he managed aid,
together ran a circus skills school for street kids.
Dervish-spirits: he uni-cycled over a mountain;

she drove a tok-tok circus through Pakistan
and the other Stans. These two carbon life-forms
the stuff of stars, intergalactic life-diamonds.