#poetsresist

[thewriterscaravan]

Dunya Mikhail, The Airplane

(Translation: 2009, Dunya Mikhail with Elizabeth Winslow and Dan Veach) (Born in Iraq, Sought asylum in USA)

The airplane coming from Baghdad

carries American soldiers and rises up and up over the moon reflected on the Tigris river over clouds accumulated like corpses over an ancient harp over skin stroked with hands over kidnapped people over ruins growing up with children over long lines at the passport office over the open lid of Pandora’s box. The airplane with its exhausted passengers will land six thousand miles away from that finger amputated in the sand.