26 Aban 1404
Quatrain 10 of 75
“With me along some Strip of Herbage strown
That just divides the desert from the sown,
Where name of Slave and Sultan scarce is known,
And pity Sultan Mahmud on his Throne.”
Reflection · Autumn 1404
The strip of herbage in autumn is amber and thin, the summer's growth now drying back toward its winter form. The desert on one side is cooling, the sown world on the other is being harvested, and the strip between them is quiet in the way that margins become quiet when the activity on both sides has peaked.
To pity Sultan Mahmud from a position of freedom is not mean-spirited; it is accurate. The man on the throne cannot feel this particular autumn air without consequence. You can. The strip is small and you can always find it, and from it the sultan's throne looks like what it is — a very heavy chair in a very cold room full of people you did not choose.