Arabian nights and desert seas… this was our life on the oasis.
With the palace… and the guards and the Sultan… our life as a foliage of green amidst the sands of time that flew by in all directions.
Gypsies and belly dancers, Harems they used to call it, where they danced under the sea of stars on desert nights. Men dressed in loose linens covering their heads… and robes to the ground to keep the sun out, but cool inside. Drinking their desert wine…came quicker than water to the tongue and from the wells as well. Music… on stringed instruments giving a haunting tune… with the women singing the old songs in their shrill voices, the men joining in.
The dances… and the animals surrounding… camels… and desert horses… this was my city.
A church there was too… the one they followed back then. Slowly took over the simple desert life – speaking of angels and sin. Slowly crept into the palace, with their Viziers, this was the secret guiding hand behind the scene of the Sultan.
Yet, we kept to our old ways, as much as we could. Couldn’t allow these male Priests to run us or take away our freedom, the women and men born of the desert felt.
To fix our souls, we’ll surely go, knowing inside there’d never be the opportunity, what God given grace gave us, could never be broken.
So, we continued on anyway.
This, after the fall of Eve and the rise of the reptilian race and their power politics. But there were those of us… who remembered the old ways.
Handsome and young you were. The men who did the labour in the village, never wore shirts. It was too hot in the sun as they worked, sweating profusely with their muscles shining in their effort – it was a sight to watch for the village girls… especially you.
How would I know, you make ask? Well, I’d certainly find myself among them, after buying some bread from the local sellers…. and with all the customary veils of the women who only showed their eyes, it wasn’t too hard to manage.
If you’ve seen Aladdin or Mohenjo Daro… you can imagine that. Especially the last one, when the Priestesses still ruled… that is where I came from.
Among the village girls I’d go, and watch you in the square. So handsome and so strong, my eyes drank you in. And the girls giggled and the men smiled and pretended not to notice, flexing their muscles and pretending to speak to one another. Lots of mischief stemmed from these circles…
Caught my eye once or twice but I was always careful… slipping away before you could find me every time, one glance and by the second I’d disappeared into the shadows.
You see, it was far too dangerous for me.
And you, the village hottie.
Far too much attention for Me.
Who was I, you might wonder… finding my way home along the alley ways, the hustle and bustle, the women beating their carpets out over the parapets… and the children playing in the streets… the guards posted along the walls at attention and the women giggling as they worked in the windows above doing washing, or weaving, or pottery…
this was Home for me.
But it was not where my path led me…
Through the streets to the palace, I gave my favourite guard a smile and slipped back in unnoticed, veils came off, and who was I…
but the Princess
Aaliyah,
Daughter of the Sultan.
What was the palace like? To me… it was boredom. It was much more vibrant outside the gates in the village – where real life happened. It felt like we were a mosaic in there posing for pictures all the time, always on camera by the steady gaze of the public, or other rulers, whoever we were supposed to please, at a given time. A façade. It felt like.
Real life was out there.
To Me.
I longed to be free.
I had my animals… a tiger, I do believe.
And a beautiful fountain.
The richest of jewels and comforts alike.
A palace bed with a canopy and rugs of rich colours and ivory.
Clothing, soft as silk and finely decorated, perfumes a wonder to smell.
But…. I wasn’t happy.
I felt so lonely.
I longed
to be Free.
Attendants at my beck and call, bringing food, drinks, wine, dressing me, undressing me, dressing my hair and combing it out again, preparing my baths and cleaning up after me, although I wasn’t too much to care for, it was stifling to me.
Couldn’t go or do anything without everyone knowing.
So, I had a body double.
And this is how I’d slip out when no one was watching, and explore the town.
One of the servant girls in the palace, she played this role, dressed up as me, and with the veils that were customary, it wasn’t so hard to deceive, a similar frame to me.
My best friend, a palace guard, letting me out and back in, when my Father wasn’t watching.
And this is how I’d come to see you again.
One day, I found you there, waiting for me, and I couldn’t run away.
You had asked after me and found your way to me.
And so began a timeless romance of Shiva and Shakti.
Took me to special places, and spots you enjoyed in the desert, candlelight dinners at the places you could afford. The thing is I never saw any lack in any of it… just this simple beauty, that you were to me. Where others were in fancy places at the bazaars, we were by the edge of the oasis under a date tree on a carpet spread for you and me. With figs and breads and candlelight romance, feeding one another and basking in each other’s eyes on the edge of the desert sea.
You had no idea who I really was at the time, and yet, somehow, you had already fallen in love with me. Maybe money, status, and wealth really don’t have anything to do with who we love. Who we are even. It was entirely irrelevant to the heart that fell for me, as mind did for him.
Entirely, besides the point indeed.
If only he’d see.
Eventually my palace bracelet revealed me, the one he saw on the Princess, Her Self, and the charade was up.
You then began to meet me, after some hesitation, but realizing you couldn’t live without me, behind the palace walls you came to see me. Befriending the guard, he’d allow you in at night to spend it with me.
Our nights together were our victory.
All I knew, was I loved you, and you loved me.
It was all that mattered to
You and Me ♾️
So many nights we spent like this lying in one another’s arms, with nothing else on, save the glow of the moonlight bathing our skin in an incandescent glow.
So much bliss and peace we felt, and always a gift you’d bring for me to cherish… a hair comb… a pretty one with little jewels I was sure you’d used your entire savings on. A flower for my vase… a bracelet of rope and knots made for lovers… these were the gifts I treasured the most of all my possessions in the entire palace.
Because they were given to me by You… with Love.
So, we filled our days and nights together until one day, of course, we were discovered.
How it happened I cannot recall, someone prying, their eyes on us where they didn’t belong. Outrage in the palace, by my Father… who wouldn’t look or speak to me, the Vizier and his Head Priest took over.
I want to marry him Father.
I love Him.
My Father’s back turned to me his hand raised.
Dismissed.
I do not wish to see you again after such a betrayal.
He said.
Bathed you, clothed you, groomed you, raised you as a Princess to throw it all away for this
for some…
Street rat?
Never. And that was that, we were carried out by the guards and thrown outside the gates for all to see.
The guard I loved so much saw when it was already too late, posted outside the wall, we were in a ring of people, a crowd flocking,
the Princess had been thrown to the floor. And who was that with her?
Like some holy grail of protection
they held the ankh symbol, the Priests closing in on us, and the Vizier at the lead.
Princess,
No more.
Heir to the throne,
Revoked.
Banished for 100 years,
to the desert,
enter here no more.
Against God’s Graces to mix with such inferior lower caste beings such as a labourer, for you,
Royalty.
You dishonour your name,
from here on out,
you shall have
None.
Cursed for all lifetimes, for this sin, that you shall
Never
be together.
Let this love you speak of, this sin,
try to overcome that
the power of our Almighty God,
for breaking his castly order.
Go on with you.
People throwing things at us as he hauled us up – them both, with veils tied across their faces
K and S
- who got us out.
We were marked now, could not return and anyone in our company would be banished to death.
Go.
They said, sending us with money, clothing and food, what they could muster in such a small time as they sent us out into the desert night.
An outpost by a well, a few hundred miles from here in another town outskirt… go there, they had said, a hut was there…
K’s brother had seen it while working out in the desert, crossing in the caravans. That he could find work with the desert traders, helping to replenish the animals across the desert treks to sustain us.
No other kingdom could we enter.
Go.
It was a life saver.
We walked for days and nights across the desert sand… and nearly collapsed upon finding the well satiating our thirst, and the hut as well.
We were quiet, you hadn’t said much since we had left the oasis but you had silently taken my hand and walked me across the desert plain for nights and days and carried me on your back when I could walk no more and my feet were burned and sore. I wasn’t accustomed to the harshness of the sun or the brutal desert winds or the animals lurking about but you took care of me silently.
It was a small Home… yes, I said Home.
A small one, but it was Ours.
And that’s all that matters to me.
I probably had one outfit… it was this beige linen looking smock… and a handkerchief to cover my hair, as sand was always blowing through around where we were in the exposed desert… but there was enough to do… dusting out the Home and preparing the food you’d bring back from the caravans or from hunting at night on the plains.
It wasn’t an easy life, compared to where we’d been. But there was a solace in it. A comfort. A comradery between you and me. And this great stillness, this great silence that felt heavenly, that engulfed us every day – in the desert.
As if we were held in it, and we were so small, compared to its vastness.
It was overwhelming.
In a good way.
You were quiet a lot, worry held on your brow, maybe regret but I was too afraid to ask that.
What could we do now?
I didn’t want to think… you’d wished you’d never met me.
But in the softness, in the way you’d look at me sometimes, over the table when I was preparing your meal or when I wasn’t looking and I’d feel your gaze and turn, I saw something else.
Love.
You Loved Me.
And when you’d look at me, like that, and I’d catch you… whether at the kitchen table… or in the room of the hut on the feathered mattress on the floor… with the sleeping skins… I’d go over immediately… and kiss you.
Home.
I’d wish those moments would last for eternity
Where you’d forget all your troubles, all your worries…
and just
Be With Me.
In Unity…
Where We were One,
and whole and complete.
Where is Home?
It’s You
and
Me.
SDS
Comments