The women are wailing,
sinking are the ships.
In a thousand lifetimes
not a single kiss.
***
Evenings in the tavern
sipping infant blood;
promises forgotten,
loyalties long dead.
Yet, the trip continues
--no one takes the blame--
ending where we started:
a desert of shame.
***
Passing through the rainbow
we captured the gold;
ambushed on the way home,
we were raped and sold!
Useless in the vineyard,
hesitant and frail,
the outspoken slave boy
soon ends up in jail.
In a cell with Joseph
there’s no dream to tell.
Neither can he save me,
nor be saved himself.
***
Rotting in the dungeons,
centuries of drought,
my beast fled and left me
on the plains of doubt.
With no trace behind me,
there’s no proof I’ve lived.
No one ever loved me.
I have never loved.
Not a word for ages,
I forgot my name.
Bad days are a nightmare;
good days, just the same.
Life is passing by me,
in my fear I dwell,
between burning oceans,
and a freezing hell.
***
Pleading from the lifeboat
to the gods of pain,
eaten by the sea salt,
beaten by the rain.
Can I gather raindrops
in a paper bag?
Or capture the sunlight
in a shredded rag?
Gates that can’t be opened,
a wall within a wall.
Hostages of hatred
have no hope at all!
***
From an ancient fable
screams the village fool:
“If you lose compassion,
violence must rule.”
--
Ehab Lotayef
Montreal, September 11th, 2002