'You carry the pearls of war within you' - poetry from Iraq

While overseas in Iraq, I carried a few books with me in my assault pack (like a medium-sized backpack). I wanted to learn as much as possible about the people of Iraq, their culture, their history. I wanted to know more of the history layered into the earth. . . .

. . . Ibn Khaldun's The Muqaddimah (An Introduction to History) - the classic Islamic history of the world - was very intriguing and eye-opening for me. The following poem I wrote from out of this study.

Dreams From The Malaria Pills (Barefoot)
Tamaghis ba'dan yaswadda waghdas nawfana ghadis


He's coughing up shrapnel, jagged and rough,
wondering if this is what the incantation brings,
those dreamwords shaping desire into being.

He's questioning why blood is needed, and so much,
why he's wheeled through his hometown streets
on a gurney draped in camouflaged sheets.

Ibn Khaldun takes each piece of metal from him:
These are to be made into daggers,
precious gifts, the souvenirs of death.

You carry the pearls of war within you, bombs
swallowed whole and saved for later.
Give them to your children. Give them to your love.

~ more... ~