Observations on the Euphrates River

By Robert James DeBurgh (Poet)

The water is muddy today and the crocodiles in Torpor lie
On the banks of immortal Euphrates, while I
With my lameness and my bent spine seek to divine their
Thoughts.
But Oh to be in cooler climes! In shaded groves of elms
Where never a camel groans 'neath monstrous mounds of straw,
That go to make Great Pharoah's bricks.

Joseph trod here, and here was slain and died in mud
The Tyrant Hamsud.
They do not last.... oh no, they soon, in this battered
Caravanserai,
Arise and take the Golden Road to Samarkhand.
The which I must, some day, to travel on by Rey and
Old Tehran,
To pass to high Kafiristan and there to seek the Learned
One
Who will with compound Magick Words my lameness cure,
For sure. But for the while I'll pause and watch the
Torpid crocodile
Eating the naked boatman, and in my lesser moments ponder
The Meaning of Life. Allah Ismarladik**

Al-Basrah, July 1887

NOTES:
Q. Fletcher, in his treatise on The Master stated "This piece is not perfect poetry. One may notice several places where there is a definite lack of scansion and rhyme. The reason is that this piece is not really intended to be read as 'great Poetry' but as 'Poetry of the heart'."
He then went on to suggest that "Another reason for its apparent laxity has been advanced and that is that DeBurgh was using his writing as a means to pass secrets through the Ottoman spy network."

B. Svertlovich countered by stating categorically that, Fletcher was an "Imbecile", that the "lack of scansion and rhyme" were in fact HALLMARKS of the Works of RJ de B and finished by insisting that DeBurgh was NOT spying for the Ottoman Empire but in fact for the British Foreign Office.
Fletcher took exception to this and retaliated by calling Svertlovich "a Moron", "an inebriated Russian peasant" and "dog's bottom".

The Chapter meeting was adjourned when the Police arrived.....

**Turkish for "Oh God! You haven't put marmalade on the mutton!"

NOTES ON PROVENANCE:
M. Floret Chou-Fleur, of Cannes, France, had this work in his possession since it was discovered by his Grandfather M. Pousse de Bruxelles (on his mother�s side) who unearthed it during one of his mysterious noctural visits to the Pere Lachaise in Paris