A Million Lifetimes
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Shehezerade is the heroine of the Arabian classic storybook, A Thousand and One Nights. She heals the twisted king, whose hatred of women spurs him to marry a different women each night and then beheads the woman the next day, by telling him unfinished stories. He must keep her alive to the next night to hear the ending. She continues for a 1001 nights until his heart melts and she becomes his forever queen. Story-telling and love are both intoxicating. To me, one of the most iconic and romantic images is of lovers in a tent near an oasis in the desert under a night sky lit by a million stars.
This poem is excerpted from, When Sea Kisses Shore, my 10th book of poetry. It is a compilation of three previously publshed e-books into a softcover edition and is available at Amazon:
I drift off into dreamland,
easy on the brakes,
and every nuance,
every shifting shade
of day into night,
is another universe unfolding,
each rolling out
a carpet of welcome,
enticing my wandering spirit,
until I step into the arms
of Shehezerade,
my head in her lap,
together in the lantern lit tent
under a million stars.
She whispers stories
of life, of love, of loss
and of laughter
into my longing ears,
and I weep for her.
Or get a digital copy here:
I weep for all forgotten lovers.
I weep for all neglected prayers.
I weep for all the hungry,
the homeless, and the helpless
who may never know such love.
© Nick LeForce
AllRights Reserved
I weep for her
to live another night,
to tell another tale,
to lead me into
the nether world
again, where I live
a million lifetimes
flinging the twinkling light
of each one
into the night sky.
