Veronica Pamoukaghlian: BAGHDAD ON FIRE

Come down into my shelter crawl
to watch the flare from below

Come in enter my den to
feel the fire from within

I crawl into my blue and then
turns orange in the twilight sky

Skies obscured with burnt black gold
to burn your strength
to hurt the land you hold beloved

Bagdad has turned a silent Babylon
so spend the silence
Await the bombs, the doom

A million dazzled souls
that speak ten thousand tongues

Believe a diamond lake
cast in the desert midst

Believe the freedom
that missiles bring
and bombs

The limping eyes
the hidden lips and veil
The dark sad eyes
the human face
of Fear

The Human Wound
the Falla of the Land

Civilization flown back
to slay his Womb

Past tainted skies
the beauty of the Mosque
By night the voice



The sacred sound
of prayer song
of Ancient Music
and Faith unmoved by time
awaits the tomahawk

and so the voices rise
side by side with the smoke

And grows the human Wound

Against this billion bombs
these laser chords
umbilical
from stolen skies
into our Heart

This is our
chemical Weapon
the intoxicating Rise
of sacred Music

Will penetrate
your fortress B and F
your force of air
Numb you to dozing birds

For this sand was here
before you began
and will remain
long after your end

though I now burn
in sulphurous purple
these bright eyes
that see further
this olive skin

These are the eyes
of the desert

though I now bleed
through dark metallic tunnels
Mine Eyes
are the Eyes of the Desert
to be

and I know patience
the sameness of the sand dune
stories that last a thousand nights
I know
prayers that last a thousand years
and wait still
for a Miracle

And I swallow my own Tyrant


This poem has appeared in the Poets Against War website.