Humility | Tiel Aisha Ansari

Hats? Oh, not for me; I never care

to cover up my head. I like the feel

of openness, of wind in ruffled hair.

I’m always one who’d rather stand than kneel—

you’d never find me walking at the heel

of someone called a shepherd, called a guide.

Everyone said I had a will of steel

and whispered of my cold cast-iron pride.

It’s all gone now, sand fortress in the tide,

the surf came in and washed the beaches clean

and left untrodden silver sands inside

my heart. The rippling hand of wind wrote: Deen.

I kneel now, with covered head, unshod

where turning tides inscribe the Names of God.

Original images: beach by Timo Balk; Ar-Rahman calligraphy from Wikimedia; fractal image of kneeling woman created in Apophysis

First published at Knocking From Inside