Drawing by Judith Wolfe

PHILIP HYAMS /

Poem



      Fratricide

      My Arab brother
      I now fast your Ramadan;
      Because it was I
      Who fed that big gun
      Which took your life
      And your blood mixed with'
      Our earth

      Your woman tore her hair
      While mine clutched me to her
      In the night
      I was your life
      My woman your wife

      Your children chose darkness
      To become our conscience
      Our people commit fratricide
      And our fathers sow the seeds
      Of future Shivas

      How do we cut that tie
      When we terminate a life?

      The palms wear rings
      Rings for each war
      Rings for each body

      Each boy we lose becomes
      Some sort of unlucky Issac
      And Ishmael we are given
      No choice
      We have no voice
      We are only actors in History's
      Nightmare

      My Arab brother
      We who both know Abraham
      Let us throw down our knives
      In exchange for the plow's blade
      The spilled blood from the past
      Can only fertilize


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