I Begged Zuleikha for Her Love and She Said,

If there is a bird

my love will grow wings.

If there is a bird

a dervish will ejaculate mirrors

a prophet will drink the desert

but never ask the Sphinx

what lottery numbers

will Rumi dream and write

in the eyes of the beloved

since we all know

what we have always known that

a Greek tiger is never drunk

a bronze Buddha is always dumb

so does a poem singing meretriciously

in the air that doesn't even care

whether our heart is made of cuckoo-

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