Babel’s Tower Poem by Shamal Akrayi

In Babel’s tower,
my eye is the pupil of stone,
the time-voice,
the network,
of broken fire, on the face,
of night, before dawn,
is shadow, naked,
is arm, plumed white,
the bird that cries ah, ah,
in Babel’s tower.

In Babel’s tower
the ghost’s breath
the bright
glitter of pebbles, the spume
that blows night together,
in foam, in murmur,
of cliff-fall,
in Babel’s tower.

In Babel’s tower,
distance, the lion-eyed
desert of fear,
a pain, between brows, a trickle
of flame, of ash,
floating down
from the eye of the lion,
to the hiss of sand,
air’s whirr,
storm’s sigh,
in Babel’s tower.