The sand shakes beneath his feet
\nThe air hangs heavy in rooms graced by his presence
\nPower shifts across the region at the flick of his finger
\nHis enemies shudder at the whisper of his name
\nMake way!
\nHe has arrived
\nThobe, sandals, beard and all
\nMake way for Bin Salman!<\/p>\n
It started with an all-encompassing vision
\nA bright future for all Saudis, maybe even the whole Middle East
\nWith every step he took
\nThe chess pieces fell
\nOne-less obstacle to stand in his way
\nAs many uncles and cousins as he needed to toss aside
\nFor the puzzle-pieces of his master plan to fall into place<\/p>\n
There is a beauty in the determination of the young
\nBut there is also a looming danger of recklessness
\nDid Yemen have to suffer?
\nDid Qatar have to be blockaded?
\nDid Loujain and her peers have to be tortured?
\nDid Khashoggi have to die?<\/p>\n
They are not the leaders we chose
\nBut they are the leaders we have
\nSitting in their grand palace complexes
\nTheir walls graced with works by the likes of Da Vinci
\nBut we must trust them to look out for the frail man on the street<\/p>\n
His presence has been felt by the world
\nJournalists and academics alike chant his initials like a mantra
\nHis grimmest expressions spattered across Al Jazeera\u2019s reports
\nDiscussions of his legacy has turned friends into foes<\/p>\n
Maybe, just maybe the destruction laid in his wake
\nWill be healed by the changes he intentionally or unwittingly set into motion
\nMaybe underneath the haughty fa\u00e7ade is just a deeply flawed human being with good intentions
\nOr maybe greed and power trumps all<\/p>\n
One thing\u2019s for sure
\nIt\u2019s the Season of the Prince.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The sand shakes beneath his feet The air hangs heavy in rooms graced by his presence Power shifts across the region at the flick of his finger His enemies shudder at the whisper of his name Make way! He has arrived Thobe, sandals, beard and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67544,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67526\/revisions\/67544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}