Common Language

Lines composed after recent

 explosions in Baghdad.

You don’t know me

You don’t look like me

Dressed in black

Or, I don’t look like you

No, not any more

I don’t even understand

Your language

But I pick up a word

“Enfejar” : explosion

Sounds so familiar

Even your screams

Like my aunt’s

When she had lost

Her young husband

--In our Holy Defense

Your Holy War--

A few months after marriage

Pregnant with their first child.

My cousin is a young man now

Young, like the sons you lost.

You don’t know me

You don’t see me

But I see you, so close

That I would have

          Hugged you

            And patted you

              And wept with you

If you were not on TV

Or I was in Bagdad

I don’t know you

I don’t know Arabic

I speak Persian

But I understand you

Your screams

            Your tears

                      Your eyes.

Agony

Speaks in a common language

We learned through war.