Hafez, the Atman Thief

Beware this smooth man,
let him not near your nostrils
with his hidden vapor traps,
not because of his heritage,
which is respectable in a land
corrupt and licentious,
but because of the testimony
sworn out on trustworthy writs
by at least one righteous witness.

His traffic with brilliant strangers
alien to our tongue and ways
sharing gifts of peculiar make
(once glimpsed by a certain elder
who has no reason to lie),

These emit a wan witchlight
secreted around his dwelling
on nights without a moon
when soulstuff is bound
only tenuously to one’s
clay body by unseen threads.

Know without it you might sink
into such desolation that stars
decline to shine above you,
the peril the ancient scrolls
mention in odd fragments.

We tell you this not as advice,
for who listens to strangers
whose motives are so arcane,
but as those who love truth,
coming from the outer world:
Hafez is worthy only of fear.