A Bedouin passed by a pontoon bridge, then gave a versified description of it unlike anything by anyone I know (meter: basīṭ):
Along the corniche, friends linger and disperse
by the Tigris post where the flood is spanned by a bridge of boats.
Viewed from one side, it's like a string of Bactrian camels
flanking each other crosswise in their tethers,
some followed by their young, some adolescents
treading dung, and some that are fair old milchers.
No coming home from travels for these camels.
Any time they move, their steps are short,
bound by ropes of palm dyed different colors
and fixed with pegs of iron in their sides.
One of the Unparalleled Poems from the Book of Prose and Poetry by
Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur (d. 893 CE)
