Crossing The Tigris Poem by Soheil Najm

It's a sword
planted in the ground by Enlil
that became a river.
Walking on its edge cuts me.
I see Ishtar drowning,
screaming for help, surrounded by snakes.
Foolishly I wrap my wound and enter.

The water is glassy.
I see myself in other kingdoms.
Stranger, this earth doesn't turn.
You and I are prisoners here.
Snakes eat the grass of our homeland
and feed us dirt.
This is Ishtar swallowing us.

Ishtar, the wild girl, undresses
at the gate of Uruk. Captivating us,
she takes us to a hellish place where
we forget the rain
and throw stories into the assassinated river
until we notice too late
that the eyes of bats do not glow,
that although the other bank is so close,
it's an impossible distance.

translated by the author and Yahya Frederickson