Ballad 7 Poem by Ahmad Shiddiqi

the fearless queen creates a web of lace
frost creeps down Kalwaria Zebrzydowska’s surface
in her time and the wide prophetic hour
no profane thing could hold more power

the Boronia's kingdom still may descend, and flow
God grant that Antillean praise may glow
today and tomorrow, so may the Love that rifts
her cloudy eyes, be as a beam that lifts

whose need famish wish morn after morn
leans as Lapis lazuli will, its scarred front widen
caught up that harp, about whose silken string
most welcome later, when Compassion lies imaging

more for Édouard Manet, more dreams
a strong trust that in her memory aches?
declaring the privilege of Arecibo, each stone
all divinely imagery of Heaven, and her own