KAREEM ABDULLAH

 

 

Shadow Markets

 

In the sunless markets,

The body is sold like a worn shirt

And the soul is exchanged

With bags of illusion and iron.

 

A child is taken from the womb of innocence

Her future is summed up

In a hand that drags her like a doll,

While her eyes light up

Like two candles resisting the wind.

 

The human being is here

Not a human being,

Rather, a number on a rusty sheet of paper

Or the whisper of money falling

From the pockets of the merchants of darkness.

 

O world,

How can we close the doors

In front of those who scream

Inside a cage without keys?

 

How do the stars sleep

And in every cell

little moon

Switches off with a slap?

 

 But—

Silence will not remain master,

The earth preserves the moans of its victims

And grows in the heart of the night

A rose of blood

Declares that freedom is not a dream

Rather, it is an eternal truth

Not to be bought,

Not to be sold.

 

On The Bed Of Pleasure

 

The sun rises proudly from your rounded navel, and sets exhausted, melting into the flames of my mouth, while the awakened fields of your body tremble every time my burning breath caresses them. The ripe fruits fall effortlessly, fruit after fruit, in the dead of night, whetting the appetite for silence,

surprising the snows of long waiting. How wicked is the door when it closes on itself, looking at the bed and envying even your red scarf.

Where are we?! Is it too late to wake up?! Who brought us here?!

Where are the tendencies we knew?! We walk without regrets, so that times become even and even forbidden places disappear!

At ground zero, we are reborn in every moment of intense desire, and the burdens lighten, as if we were two children seeing the light for the first time, after their eyes have suddenly opened in a darkness that cares not for the whiteness of the darkness!  Even when the voices calm, the breaths rise screaming, not knowing how to dance the dance of repressed ecstasy!

How we need to see the distant depths, to enter into contentment and reverence!

 

KAREEM ABDULLAH

 

KAREEM ABDULLAH is an Iraqi poet, writer and playwright. Born in Baghdad in 1962, Kareen Abdullah is the author of "Baghdad in Its New Dress" (Book House 2015). His name has appeared in many important Arabic literary magazines and he won the Tajdeed Prose Poetry Prize in 2016. Kareem has published eight collections of poetry in Arabic and his poems have been translated into numerous languages. Creator of the highly successful cultural project that promotes poets and artists with the critical literary and stylistic analysis that he carries out in collaboration with the international cultural promoter Elisa Mascia - Italy, with subsequent publications in Alessandria today Magazine and on the blog nonsoloarteepoesia Magiche Emozioni dell'Anima. He is an official international member of Ciesart and has been published in Humanity Magazine Global