Strange Fruit.


"In the 8th century the collection of poems and stories related to the ayyam, the 'days' or battles of the pre-Islamic tribes, were studied with almost as much love and veneration as the traditions of the Prophet himself, and the world of the pagan Arabian nomad became as integral to the history of Islam as the works of the classical pagan authors did to the Christian intellectual tradition." --Hugh Kennedy, in: Interpreting Late Antiquity
(1999)


    "The Emperor, Being Divine"

Now and then
the pain in my heart
for awhile sleeps
for awhile dreams
the tap-tapping of acorns on the sidewalk
under gray growing darker
je'e
still the deserted street


Another squid thread.


End of an epoch.


One ringy-dingy...