Just A Song
Thanks because the river flows
and the villages are fruits on the roads
and the roads are sleepwalking doors
and sleep is the shadow of death
its white land's first
and the dead are with me
strolling in front of my house
unarmed and peaceful
they posed for photos then left
singly
without an evening
or a calamity
and thanks to the evening.
A Going
Leave us something
we'd be sad if you leave
Leave us, for example,
if you like,
your last photo by the door
our summer trip together
that scent of pine,
your words or your tobacco?
And don't go
alone
and whole
like a sword.
A Horse
And whenever I fall asleep
I find a horse grazing grass
. . .
always
a horse comes to graze the grass
. . .
when I fall asleep.
____________________
Ghassan Zaqtan
Like A Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems
trans. Fady Joudan
Yale 2012
