Ali

Ali

You landed next to me while I was reading
Mahmoud Darwish in Arabic.
You said: "You really read this? Terrific."
I didn't know yet that this was leading

to a friendship right across all borders
to unite two hearts in pain.
How we both smiled, did not complain.
We went for coffee, and you ordered

for me, and then we talked,
you were from Iraq. A soldier in the War on Terror,
deserted. In your eyes the horror
so present after all these years, you walked.

You couldn't kill, you said, your hands were shaking,
so I wrote your letter to your wife and son
who were still there, although the war was done...
you can't go back, that godforsaken

war kills more than people: it kills humanity.
When will your family be here?
You are too far from those so dear,
they suffer from the world's insanity.

***

June 20, 2017
For Contest: I like Muslims
Sponsor: Kai Michael Neumann