R. Joseph Hoffmann - Holiness

“Then do they not look at their camels, how they are created—and at the sky, how is it raised? ” (Qur’an al-Ghashiyah,17-18)

In Bahry, near the dry parts of Khartoum,
men in jalabiya with sticks for swords
turn their tunics to pantaloons
and ride on sneering camels towards
the Nile. One or two tourists
snap pictures of the spectacle
knowing, of course, it isn’t the purest
(or, for all that, the most historical)
reflection of an ancient ritual.

But still they race, children at recess
pushing and digging to be the winner,
like a dancing girl, the wishful princess
who plays the part and ends a sinner.
They race because they are broken.
They race because they are afraid to die.
They race because once it was forespoken
that they might in racing reach the sky.

R. Joseph Hoffmann

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/holiness-3/