Bitter Wells

By Tiel Aisha Ansari

A traveller walked along a desert track
Surrounded by bare earth and bitter wells.
Her water gone, there was no turning back
Mirages shimmered, deadly shining spells.
Past rocky hills where Manticora dwells
She toiled upward, downward, bent with care.
Over dead plains of dust and barren fells
And when she looked ahead-- no path was there.
Then sank she to the ground in dark despair
And wept for wasted progress, bitter shame:
"Have I travelled so far for this? Unfair!"
When least expected, then, an answer came.
"Oh child of mine, why all this bitter yearning?
Where all paths end, the heart begins returning."

Tiel Ansari is 41, female, American, recent convert to Islam, member of the Qadiri-Rifai tariqa under the leadership of Shaykh Taner Ansari. She lives in Portland, Oregon, USA and has a blog at knockingfrominside.blogspot.com, mostly poetry, some short fiction and artwork. She works for the public school system in Portland as a data programmer, and practices Pentjak Silat Serak in her copious free time.