Once upon a time in a dusty desert,
In the long rows of floating silt,
I saw.
I saw a dark behemoth, approaching,
Stealthily. 
Stealthily through the numbing night,
Through the staggering wind and slapping sand,
Clumsy, tottering and despairingly slow.

Falling, the salty dirt and the prickly thorn.
Rising, like a chicken newly born.
And come to me.
Spent, hung upon the back of the camel,
I saw a damsel.
Senseless,
Peerless,
Lifeless,
A princess.
-1/7/2001, Calcutta- 63