MADINA

What desert storms

What riverbanks
Littered with mutilated flesh
Rocks … And Shells
Stained with the blood
Of a million Messiah
And in what ephemeral dwelling
Resides the occulted one?

What fresh water from the river Dojla

To quench my eternal thirst
And what unpleasant scent of a fakir
Will cast away death
What images of triumph
What victory memorabilia
From the ancient museum
Will you bring me O my son?

Those who sharpen their daggers

Meaning death!
Those who seek salvation
Through contempt
Meaning death!
When glory glitters
Burning the night
Meaning death!

When will Gilgamesh

Rise up from his slumber
To rejoice the birth of Tammuz
In spring
The phoenix consumed on the pyre
Resurrected,
Will rise and spread its wing
And what teenage widow
Amongst the rubble she's torn
Wailed.. Wailed..
The death of her son

Are heroes insubstantial, forgotten forever?

When the foe becomes friend
Induced to loop painful memories
By this frail human psyche
Gracefully dissolve in place
What are these faces?
 Erased by a roadside bomb

O!
I have seen children
Kicking a skull
Which pinched a nerve or two
Innocent laughter
Between playful hurrying feet
Given a moment to prepare the scene
For the shallow evening to cover a crime
And for all the collateral bodies
To gather and meet

I have seen the executioner perform ablution

To cleanse his dirty hands
And to render a speech
About divine intervention
And how every indispensable martyr executed
Is planting the seed of redemption,
For all to understand

O! Believers
My faith I have forgotten
Hereafter I shall remember
The ragged poor
Rotten!
Prepare for me Caviar and Cheese!
As one interrogation follows another
The untruth becomes justice
The lie becomes law
And the unknown fact
My own

The stakes are high

This prisoner, this stranger,
This deformed face, this wretched being
Ameliorated, maybe?
Brainwashed to resign life
Awakened, eyes frozen, lips parted
Hope tangled
In the most beautiful strand of hair
Now I understand
Let go of my hand
I am free!
My brother

Rafik Kafal,
Boston 2007/2009