The Illusion of Place

By 
Moayed al-Rawi
 
The home we used to live in had become a cave
 
     smells like garlic
     covered with lime and dirt
The wind that enters our home is humid
     sticks to the body
     and the water is putrid, stinks, full of  poisonous  bubbles.
 
That's what you said to me
     But my home is not the place
Where the grouse can take refuge
     there not only she dies but the soul too.
 
Thus we were expelled from our homes,
     from the house that glowed with life,
     dominated by mothers' love
We were driven by the rivers
    to their deep streams
We return to where we started, to the rock
     when the river lost control of its course
     to be crucified next to the spring.
 
We see the wind choked inside the well
     unable to find the shadow of a tree at noon
     seeking protection from heat
We had become pawns, manipulated by Satan
     driving us to suffering,
     filling our hands with burning sands in hot summer.
 
We are the angels
     deprived of light
     repressed,
     damned.
Our faces have wounds,
     injuries of old time
     showing the painful tattoos of many places
     we were forced to leave
     once and for ever.
 
Translated from the Arabic by Noel Abdulahad.
 
Moayed al-Rawi is a prominent Iraqi author, essayist, poet who lives in Germany.
 
This poem appeared in Al Jadid Magazine, Vol. 10, No. 49, Fall 2004.
 
Copyright © 2004 AL JADID MAGAZINE