Agha Shahid Ali

A History Of Paisley:

You who will find the dark fossils of paisleys 
one afternoon on the peaks of Zabarvan - 
Trader from an ancient market of the future, 
alibi of chronology, that vain 
collaborator of time - won't know that these 
are her footprints from the day the world began. 

(Oh see, it is still the day the world begins: 
and the city rises, holding its remains, 
its wooden beams already their own fire's prophets.) 

And you, now touching sky, deaf to her anklets 
still echoing in the valley, deaf to men 
fleeing from soldiers into dead-end lanes 

(Look! Their feet bleed; they leave footprints on the street 
which will give up its fabric, at dusk, a carpet) - 
you have found-you'll think- the first teardrop, gem 
that was enticed for a mogul diadem 
into design... 

...three men are discussing, between 
sips of tea, undiscovered routes on emerald 
seas, ships with almonds, with shawls for Egypt. 
It is dusk. The gauze is torn. A weaver kneels, 
gathers falling threads. Soon he will stitch the air. 

(The Country without a post office, 1997)