NASEEHAT
They sanitized the cells with bone powder
Swept away his mustache strands
Cast the crown into the murky crowd
Blind, weaving together, cheering for blood
For a deer in the piercing white headlights
A starfish in the sweep of the tide
Heavy in the current, tumbling
Reckless in their lunacy, the pull
Crashing against the barricade mechanically
The sting of pepper in their eyes
Shredded by bullets and the cold
Drinking in the streets I stood ragged
Watching the parade pass my feverish eyes
Blundering into the ornate Eid night
Stumbling resolute on the Grand Trunk
Headed nowhere in their finest clothes
The arctic blast that seeped through my bones
As if someone had pressed a button
Watching my rival, my beloved enemy
Dealing out, dealing with their own victory
I was a firefly in the vacant dark of your eyes
Seeking the warmth of your inferno
Puzzling over your skeletal remains
Your face marked on your shroud
As the rowdy shadows on the wall
Found with a cry their golden award
And placed it on the golden calf reverent
Threw up manna and demanded onions
My Beloved, all the lessons in the world
Do not compare to the face on the shroud
What is Jamal then, but a spectre that haunts the cold road
An illusion of a life watching the cars crash in their rage
What is Jamal that is not the crowd, what are they but him
On whose heavy head does the crown lie but ours then
Made in His Image, craving unity in a broken home
One must drink the pain away, but the drug is the question
The poor cannot afford wine, so they sniff what they find
He who has put the cup of wine in my hands guides me
To gaze into the enemy’s eyes across his Table spread
To drown my sorrows and paint His portrait for them.
I drained my cup resolute one day
I took up my easel and brush
I painted the rebel’s blazing eyes
Angry at the world, hungry for the world
His dead eyes staring serene at God’s face
I began to daub my brush in red wine
Tracing the lost world, awash in green
Men with thick beards and large hearts
Images printed on cheap plastic sheets
Until the poor can read the Quran.
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