Brian Docherty
Cloths from Rajasthan
These are the colours of heat.
Earth baked to hot hard brick.
Coriander, cinnamon, saffron,
rice & sweetmeats passed from
hand to hand on a silver platter,
left hand an aid to conversation,
right hand the only utensil.
Gauzy shimmer. Dust. Camel dung
collected for fuel & moustache wax.
Camel races; sword-width moustaches.
Bets on everything in sight.
Men judged by their moustaches
and riding skills, valued in camels,
looking like the Punjabi Sikhs
who drive Glasgow’s buses.
Music & dancing after sunset,
their instruments mediaeval
to our ears; dholak, kamaicha,
satara, morchang, santoor;
too wild for any orchestra.
The Thar desert rides a red turban
towards the North-West Frontier,
Baghdad of the Caliphs only a camel
charge away, and if the Silk Road
runs again because of oil in Baku
these men will start in Lahore.
Whatever happens can be blamed
on the Mujahadeen or the CIA.
In the meantime, moustaches
are waxed, camels are raced.
Page(s) 64
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