Circle/Mud Poem Poem by Fatima Nusairat

Oh my little one
Leave the cohesive mud circle of blackened stones
Whose lineaments vanished
Like water in the darkness

Leave the calendar accounts
The distances and the fishermen's nets
And stay at mothers prayer
In talismans hidden in the clouds
In the tidings of the rain
Shaded by turtledove wings

Leave the trembling of (Qaf)
The stories of the bells
And the deserts' babble
And go with the revelation of bees

To the oppressed, miserable and broken-hearted
Who sleep in the crannies
Of mountains and pine forests,
In the sand hills and seas
In the gardens and on the road

I said behold I am leaving
Oh friend of turtledoves
With the trembling eyes of childhood phantoms
With flapping birds
With shivering trees
With dewy roses and the smell of rain
I am leaving like a blind stranger on the road
Like a captive who grew old with grief

Oh companion turtledoves
Even though chagrined by- -
I still bestow the brightness of my eyes
So where is the circle of mud?
Where is the veil?
Where is the water?
and who is entering this time
and who is leaving?

I have fallen silent and occupy myself with prayer
O sheik
What words but a bare rock
longing for the water!
What water but a rose revolution!
What a rose but in the horse's sweat!
What horses but in the belly of the wind!
What winds but a phoenician bird
Flying above the housed sky

As if to guide the water to its springs,
The bees to its flowers
And the absentees to the road

Written by: Fatima Nusairat
Edited by: Raven Drake