Tasenda

Mou’ji , sing me a lullaby tonight Too many faces made of white smoke Smother me when I close my eyes My dreams are on a leash, and Olive green monsters stalk my breaths Mou’ji , sing me a lullaby Mou’ji , burn my clothes while I sleep Too many friends have bled on the Shirt, You brought for me when Eid last came For when the demons come for me, Let them never handle threads sanctified by blood Mou’ji , burn my clothes while I sleep Mou’ji , take away and bury my school books My classroom is now a sandbag bunker My fingers will trace words in the dark now Every page full of the names of the dead One by one, till I am one of them Mou’ji , take away and bury my school books Mou’ji , don’t cry when they bring me home For even if there is no heaven, I refuse to be choked My hands are scarred from the edges of stones But iron chains are heavier still Even when gilded with fool’s gold Mou’ji , don’t cry when they bring me home ...

I will sit one day again, on the hillock opposite Chrar, and look at it till it consumes me The fire that still rages in the mountains, Shall claim me then, even as I sit still unable to move Mesmerised by the beauty and purity of fire, Fire, whose fuel is men and stones, shall consume me Only to purify my stained heart, only so that I can sit one day again On the hillock opposite Chrar And look at it till it consumes me, again. I shall live again in the village of Dervishes, And in places, that do not, should not, exist I will whirl away my sorrows even as my sorrows whirl me, insignificant speck, away The wind will claim me, if only to abandon me to the village of dervishes, And in places, which do not, should not, exist. I will drink from the Spring of Hemal Even as the poison shall spread through me, I shall sing of Hejaz and Sheeraz The Thirst quenching virtue of water, shall Take over me as madness shall creep, And claim me again, so that I may drink again From the poisoned wate...