Alhambra – by Omar Musa

ISLAND | ONLINE ONLY

Mashallah —
tsk tsk tsk —
walls brim with barakas —
the Almighty’s horror vacui —
knotted Kufic, lattice-worked centuries —
rammed, iron-blooded, light-strafed earth —
ode to Allah’s infinity & man’s limitation —             made to decay —           
ceilings honeycombed like cave of revelation —
pearl stars, eight-sided, stars enamelled blue —                                
channel cleaves stone, air shivers blue —                                         
glistering, murmuring, seething —                                            

but blank space found in shade —                           

bare wall colour of spilled brain —               

dazed, louche heads of agapanthus —
orange & lime  —               
date palm & cypress —
rose & oleander —

gaze over Lorca’s city —       
hills that legions stormed —
yesterday & tomorrow grapple like lions —             

made to decay —                   

                                                — memory unforgiving as sun —     

made to decay —       

in the gift shop, buy the Breath of the Compassionate —                 
packaged, stamped & printed —                               

wash your hands in the toilets                                   
of a burnished shrine to clash of East & West —                 

            elsewhere —

                        a bullet pierces a would-be president’s ear —

a baby turns to rubble

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Image: Victoriano Izquierdo - Unsplash

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