Death by stoning
(after T.S. Eliot)
Salman the scribe, some years hidden,
forgot the cry of the muezzin, the deep shift
to purple at dusk
and the profit and the loss.
A stone from the sky
licked his bones in whispers. As he rose and flew
he passed the stages of his age and youth
entering the waters of the West.
Muslim, Gentile or Jew
O you of the cloth and book who look to the east,
consider Salman, who was once handsome and
terrified as you.