Finola Holiday
Heritage Site
We arrived at our destination
at the end of a dirt track,
at a meeting of rivers.
Since the war ended no one
had braved the roads to visit
this fabled place.
We discovered a walled courtyard
with a sign in Arabic saying
‘Beware of Snakes’.
Hens scratched the dust. The guardian,
one Ali, in white djellaba,
saluted us gravely.
"No, the site was closed, the padlock
rusted solid, the Ministry
had sent no money."
We had to negotiate
with packets of Lucky Strike
till he let us in.
He told us a stream had flowed
through reed beds – that was before
they had drained the marshes.
And the Tree of Life was gone,
uprooted, looted to order—
how he missed the shade.
The snakes he had killed himself,
they were bad for tourists, besides
they had eaten his eggs.
We said goodbye to Ali,
wishing him many sons.
He locked the gates behind us—
on the Garden of Eden.
at the end of a dirt track,
at a meeting of rivers.
Since the war ended no one
had braved the roads to visit
this fabled place.
We discovered a walled courtyard
with a sign in Arabic saying
‘Beware of Snakes’.
Hens scratched the dust. The guardian,
one Ali, in white djellaba,
saluted us gravely.
"No, the site was closed, the padlock
rusted solid, the Ministry
had sent no money."
We had to negotiate
with packets of Lucky Strike
till he let us in.
He told us a stream had flowed
through reed beds – that was before
they had drained the marshes.
And the Tree of Life was gone,
uprooted, looted to order—
how he missed the shade.
The snakes he had killed himself,
they were bad for tourists, besides
they had eaten his eggs.
We said goodbye to Ali,
wishing him many sons.
He locked the gates behind us—
on the Garden of Eden.
Page(s) 44
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