He'd promised her the world, <br />of course she knew reality. <br />A continent away, she slept <br />and dreamed about the man <br />whose eyes had focused on <br />the jewel of the East, Afghanistan. <br /> <br />Her brother had, with a small smile <br />cut his own throat in bleak adversity, <br />the rules of desert sands were cruel <br />yet none would dare to stand and shout. <br /> <br />Allah was king and people were his sheep, <br />the fragrance of pure lanolin would lead <br />in scent and through magnetic trickery <br />to destiny as promised by the Gods. <br /> <br />The call woke him at dawn, from overseas. <br />She simply asked that he would come to her, <br />it was her life and nothing more than that, <br />he was still waking from his slumber, then he said: <br /> <br />I will be there for you as soon as things calm down, <br />it is our future that this deal go through on time, <br />we shall be rich and live in one big great hacienda <br />it is for you my darling that I must request your patience. <br /> <br />He did not come within the seven days of grace, <br />and nothing mattered after that, in her tradition. <br />No thought of riches or of beautiful haciendas <br />would have occurred to her, behind that cotton veil.<br /><br />Herbert Nehrlich<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-pledge/
