TRAVELLING PRAYERS

Driving through an afternoon 
of missed prayers
like the missed beats of a zambra 
thirsty furious confused
piling up icy comebacks 
and umbrage at confrontations 
20 kilometers back
the motorway obscured for the
salt on my spectacles
spangling the streetlights
to glaring octopi

At 1 am
a 3-year-old boy reciting
the Farsi for shark
crocodile dolphin turtle
omitting my favourite, the
blushing jellyfish
arus-a-daryaei ~ bride of the sea
I take a desperate turnoff
to soften this catastrophe
with a long-promised beach trip

We shore up on a deserted El Playazo
run deliriously along the water’s hem
kick grit into our shoes
until I realise – Here’s my mosque!
the condo balconies all dormant
my huge pink shawl both scarf and mat
as my boiled head meets the cool grey grit
striated by shadows of palm leaves
filigree trunks creaking
pacifically in the breeze
and it’s every bit as fresh
as the clear green throat
of the waves

So this is why we shorten travelling prayers 
because one long heartbeat in prostration
this longed-for, needed, mercy-laden/mercy-sweetened? moment
is worth your scattered hours of prayer 
and the briefest connection 
that uncramps a concertina’d day
towers like a landmark in memory 
so you drive on washed anew
a smudge of salt smudging your spectacles
stellating the streetlights home