16. Mme. Scheherazade

What is one more djinn

in amongst the afrits,

demons, goblins and bogey

men and women with

lighter-coloured skin?

What is one more night

alongside the King of Fools,

Half-wits, Lollards and Simple

Toms and Simons with

strangely-coiffeured hair?                                                          Mme. Scheherazade will tell

her man-child stories

in the high tower

with the gold taps not golden showers.

He will listen without understanding

through 1001 nights of a potentate’s more usual pleasures.

He is not Ali Baba, he is merely Sesame

- another donkey mcguffin in a ludicrous plot.

Nor is he Ali with the Large Member

- though he would like to think so.

Mme Scheherazade has few stories left:

She will save the dead girl in the chest

for last and best in hope that her Caliph

will finally understand his gland is

no more an instrument of power

than he is.

What is one more djinn,

when there aren’t enough bottles

in the world to seal them in?