When I was little more than a boy my parents
Took me to Palmyra as a reward for my exams
It was located northeast of Damascus in Syria
Which seemed rather exotic to me
But I did not show my hidden excitement
And apart from an English couple named Daniel and Jane
We were the only English people there
All the others were either French German or Dutch
At the time I was obsessed with the lost jewels of ancient Palmyra
Which the poet Baudelaire had dreamt of many years previously
But knew that these jewels were nothing more than a poets dream
Lost in time and times ruin
The English couple fascinated me though
As they seemed to silently orbit each other
Sometimes together sometimes alone and sometimes not even seen
I thought that might be lovers or ghosts but could not be sure
But I watched their every move when in the desert city
It was said in the Bible that Palmyra was built by Solomon
A city which was by now crumbling into the seas of sand
This was all that was left after the passage of the counted years
There was a modern town nearby with pleasant restaurants and hotels
Our hotel was on the road to the ruins which hinted of mirages in the white heat
All life that had once been there was now sleeping beneath the dusts of the desert
On the day before we departed I saw the Englishwoman bury
What appeared to be a ring in the sands near a temple
She said nothing but lingered for a while before vanishing from my view
I never saw either Jane or Daniel again as they did not return with us
This haunted me for many years as did my visit to Palmyra
I often longed to return with my family and retrace the steps of my previous visit
But knew that this would be impossible
As the wheels of history had moved towards
A hell that I could not even begin to understand
I wondered if Jane’s ring was still beneath the sand
It is likely that it would have remained there
No matter what was happening elsewhere
As this is the way that history works in the desert