Don't you feel we have lost so much
that our ' great ' love is now only words ,
...
Samīħ al-Qāsim ( (Arabic: سميح القاسم;[1] Hebrew: סמיח אל קאסם;[2][3] born 1939) is a Palestinian Druze whose Arabic poetry is well known throughout the Arab World. His poetry is influenced by two primary periods of his life: Before and after the Six-Day War. He joined the Communist Hadash political party in 1967. Al-Qasim has published several volumes and collections of poetry. Al-Qasim was born in 1939 in the city of az-Zarqa in northern Jordan while his father served in the Arab Legion of King Abdullah. He came from a Druze family from the town of Rameh in the Upper Galilee. He attended primary school there and then later graduated from secondary school in Nazareth. His family did not flee Rame during the Palestinian exodus (Nakba) of 1948.[4] In his book About Principles and Art, he explains, While I was still at primary school the Palestinian tragedy occurred. I regard that date as the date of my birth, because the first images I can remember are of the 1948 events. My thoughts and images spring from the number 48)
Bats
Bats on my windows
suck in my words
Bats at the entrance to my house
behind newspaper , in corners
trail my footsteps ,
observing every movement of my head
From the back of the chair, bats watch me
They trail me in the streets
watching my eyes pause
on books, on young girls' legs . . .
they watch and watch
On my neighbor's balcony , bats,
and electronic gadgets hidden in the walls
Now bats are on the verge
of suicide
I am digging a road to daylight .