1303 Plus 632 Doesn't Add Up To 1885 Poem by Alexandre Nodopaka

1303 plus 632 doesn't add up to 1885

but what's 50 years this way or the other.

I found this booklet
written in sumptuous calligraphy.
Since I lived in El Maghreb
I was able to read the date in Arabic.

The chapbook is thin
with only so many pages.
I'll let you count.

It starts with 4 pages of poetry
followed by 32 pages of text
ends with another 13 pages of poetry
of which
1 page is devoted to a prologue and
1 page to a finale.
41 pages total pages. Right?

All pages are hand written in Persian
not that I can truly differentiate Farsi
from Arabic.
The booklet is lovingly hand bound
in thin khaki leather
issued in Tabriz, Iran in 1303.
That's another dromadery
who didn't reach heaven.

And in spite of mathematics
having been invented long ago
whoever typed on a white label
the information in English
managed to screw up
Mohammed's and Jesus's birth years.

Prose and poetry
is the chapbook content
that I may never know.
Though Rumi and Shams
are on my mind.

The meaning of the content
is Greek to me.
What a bummer!

I reach for the imitation Magic Lamp.
Rub it like Aladdin must've
but no way Jose
the magic is still fermenting
under its shut lid.