~
Dunya Mikhail
* 1965 in Baghdad, Iraq
vertrok naar USA in 1996
2001: UN Human Rights Award
for Freedom of Writing
The airplane
The airplane coming from Baghdad
carries American soldiers
and rises up
and up
over the moon
reflected on the Tigris river
over clouds accumulated
like corpses
over an ancient harp
over skin stroked with hands
over kidnapped people
over ruins growing up with children
over long lines at the passport office
over the open lid of Pandora’s box.
The airplane
with its exhausted passengers
will land six thousand miles away
from that finger
amputated in the sand.
~*~
© Translation: 2009, Dunya Mikhail
with Elizabeth Winslow and Dan Veach
Publisher: First published on PIW, 2009
Lunch Poems: Dunya Mikhail
Dunya Mikhail
* 1965 in Baghdad, Iraq
vertrok naar USA in 1996
2001: UN Human Rights Award
for Freedom of Writing
The airplane
The airplane coming from Baghdad
carries American soldiers
and rises up
and up
over the moon
reflected on the Tigris river
over clouds accumulated
like corpses
over an ancient harp
over skin stroked with hands
over kidnapped people
over ruins growing up with children
over long lines at the passport office
over the open lid of Pandora’s box.
The airplane
with its exhausted passengers
will land six thousand miles away
from that finger
amputated in the sand.
~*~
© Translation: 2009, Dunya Mikhail
with Elizabeth Winslow and Dan Veach
Publisher: First published on PIW, 2009
Lunch Poems: Dunya Mikhail
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