Poem 028, Sonnet 11: Dis-May? Poem by Samer Madbak

What welcome must I give you, honoured May?
And how should I your advent entertain
If gaily, then forsooth my heart I feign
And so, gay month, with dudgeon and dismay
And one demand; that your unwelcome stay
Be brief, for I am certain you’re in train
To smite my spirit and amass me pain
In kindred fashion to your brothers’ way;
For they, your ill forerunners, passed along
Bequeathing injuries for me to cherish
Marking my plaguèd soul with biting wrong…
Hence, month of blossom, flit away and perish!
I do implore you: hasten to depart,
Enough of what is in my sickened heart.


Beirut
May 3rd 1988