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they say when she came to Athens,
the drunken Lord Byron leapt in the sea
in proper welcome, like some male siren.
After the shipwreck near Cairo she lost all, took off
her thin dress, donned men’s waterproof clothing
and continued towards the spicy East.
Refusing the veil
she tore down every wall and veil of this world
until, with twenty-two camels,
she broke through eastern cities’ brass gates
tearing their strict laws apart.
With her nose-tip pointing towards Palmyra,
she crossed a desert of scorpions and Bedouins
became the only woman
welcomed with a laurel crown
in that strange city.
From then the turban on her shaved head
was as a fat ouroboros
gnawing at its own ego-tail.
Emir Mahannah el Fadel was not alone
in dubbing her Queen Hester. But the ancient clay
laughed at those titles.
She sought gold florins buried under Gaza,