Here, by way of follow-up to yesterday’s post on our Refugee Week event, is a real scoop. We are honoured to publish a poem entitled Armoured Angels, by Kusay Hussein (with Sue Reid Sexton). Our best wishes to Kusay in Iraq.
Armoured Angels
Silent,
Distressed,
They would roam around,
Along the bleeding road,
For the suicide of the mind.
They would be shocked,
Angels might be exposed
To witness the hideous
Sin of oppression.
Eyes were terrified
By what they’d seen,
Ears were deafened
By howling explosion,
Limbs were littered
Nearby on the ground,
Blood drops in between
Like sinking pain
In a shivering, tortured line.
But they were shocked
And never secured
The stick when it dropped,
Nor they covered
Genitals when exposed,
Nor they closed
a lifeless eyelid,
nor they held
a grain of dust.
They stayed shocked
While they left,
Holding the moment,
To the firmament
Where its racket
Was lost,
Disappeared,
Distressed,
Silent.
In gloomy, sad
City of Baghdad
After the dawn,
Before the forenoon,
Amidst the destroyed
Mourning neighbourhood,
Against the sun,
if you stood,
a dim armoury
you would find
along your sightline,
the dark colour of horizon.
You may imagine
Nights later on
If your beloved
Was on the ruined
Guts of the road,
When angels were exposed,
An Army was prepared
Up in the distance
For the heavy event,
Distressed,
Silent.
