Opinion

Migrants fleeing slaughter

khalidalbalushi@hotmail.com

Morning

The shadow of dawn grows

Before the threshold

The birds resort to strange places

Fear drives them to barracks

You hear only wings’ collision

Like migrants fleeing slaughter

It was a dark morning right from the start.

Friends

They reserve their seats in the morning

To smoke and drink coffee

As the words shine in their mouths

The tables are filled with

Absence.

Lantern

I daily see window’s injury

Illuminate the night

Like a lantern lighting the depths

Of human injury.

A Game

We weren’t heroes

We weren’t cowards

We were only ourselves

Playing dice with shooting stars

And sometimes hearing frog’s croaking

In a night whose remains began to die.

The Grave of Henry Barbusse

I lock the door and peek through

The hole of a storm

At the crowd.

I know after a while... the carnage will move

With all its details to my heart.

The Artist

Always will your works be born

Incomplete

They won’t finish

Save in the madness of a lost wave

Or in a head torn to pieces

By war.

Desert’s Bounty

The aged beg for a passerby’s smile

Their faces are our mirrors

In the camber of life

Their days hanging in memory

Like a hump facing the desert’s bounty.

The Bells Won’t Ring

The storm hasn’t subsided tonight

Before my door

Its five enemies slammed its directions.

In churches’ pale light

I see monks dragging vehicles

Running for mountains

With pedigree horses in the wind

As if they’re back to Byzantium.

In this ancient night

The bells won’t ring after today

The storm won’t cease.

Smell

Despite the weather

And its abundant clarity

The prey’s smell still tickles my throat.

The Blessing of Funeral Ceremonies and Summers

The bones of last night

I taste now like carrion

The blessings of funerals’ secret

In particular their delicious meals.

The summer about to leave us

Looks like that bird

Whose head was severed on a rock’s edge.

The parting we experienced in love

Was that of enemies and fighters.

I took solitude as destiny

Daily we compete in the garden

To win

“I was created but genial”.