The Fire of Hajar

4 Dhu'l-Hijjah 1425 - Poem 4

By Mohja Kahf

“…O Fire, be thou cool and safe for Abraham” (Quran, The Prophets: 69)

How she grew from round-cheeked, aproned girl,
helpmeet to an aging couple, to someone tried by fire:

woman beyond our ken, out in a bigger world,
midwifing new earth. This was another trial by fire

like the flames lit underneath me in my youth,
this leaving Hajar and child. The desert was afire.

She knew why I had to leave her there. She knew.
She had to know. I held her one last night, a fire

of grief consuming me. I have always burned for truth.
I prayed to the Friend who once cooled a blazing fire

and made it safe for me, God, make of this desert too
a safe abode for Hajar. Let her not burn in its fire.

In her shadow, thrown across the rockscape by the sun
were strange shapes and, glinting in her eyes, a fire.

Tears wet my beard. I looked back, but she was gone.
I have not been spared this time, this Hajar fire.