Your Double Coursed Sister
I am your double coursed
Sister
My modal figure –
My yearning for voice.
I am a single line
I am the melodic serpent
Advancing by half-flats.
I am the hands of Ziryab
The blackbird
The one born in Baghdad.
I am oud player to the Umayyad court
Cordoba
8th century,
Ziryab
The dark one.
I am your hands
I am the reeshi in your hands
The eagle feather
As you pluck the strings.
I am the fifth course of strings
The ones introduced by Ziryab –
The soul –
Added to the four courses
The four humors of Aristotle.
I am the soul –
The fifth course.
I am the hands of the old man
Sitting by the Seventh Well
I am the sixth course
A single string
I am resolute
The absolute
The sixth course.
I am your hands
Rescuing you.