Dusk is riding the London Eye
Dropping into the Thames,
Rising upon the Embankment

Wearing the night-black body
Of a crouching, lazy Sphinx.

In secret illumination
The obelisk beacon is lit
Black light pouring its hieroglyphics

Unseen across the rippling waters.

Fallen leaves,
A desert floor of golden heat
Reaches out

Beneath the feet
Of my Nile queen

She sleep-walks
Between that life and this

Whisper talks her mysteries.

In her kiss I can hear
All my empires crumble

In her embrace
The world once so near

Disappears forever.

Dusk whispers once more
And in the City of Dolphins
They slip from river lanterns

They call to the camels,
Sit no more with bench and stone
For the desert is calling us,

Calling us home.

And I, I know nothing of this life,
Not its shape, not is lie, not its name

I know only
It is for her that I came

To the City of Dolphins
On the edge
Of the River Thames

In the reign of a dusky tyrant.

Revised version, original available in the collection Dervish Days from Amazon.