What Prayer Rugs Collect Poem by Seif-Eldeine O

What Prayer Rugs Collect

1

Take comfort in the prayer rug.
She is the Kevlar vest.

She is the silence in the night
Between bombs. The zephyr
Comes from the mountaintop.
Your god revealed the commandments.

She knew your ancestors
When steel made swords.

2

Roll her with your hands:
With five prayers
Turned on the tip of her tongue.

For you tuck her in a safe
Place, for her prayers turn
The world on its axis.

In the street, she shall hear
The dying rumors of men.

3

Do you keep forgetting your refuge?
Then tie her threads
Like a taqiyah
To place on your head.

When your mouth dries with dirges
In graveyards you cannot visit,
Know the dead
Will sing their prayers for you.

Then you can bow your head,
And place it on your prayer rug,
Then you can collect the dust and dead skin
Of those who came before you.

this poem was originally published in Pidgeonholes, October ‘16