You Want a Homeland – Riyadh Gharib‏

You Want a Homeland -  Riyadh Gharib‏

To my wife Widad, whoputs up with me  a lot

I was crying, like any father cries and says,

“This is what I have dreamed of all these years;

the time has come to move somewhere else.”

–Riyadh, end of 2009

I see you staring

at a scene that cannot recur

you

and I

and this music that bleeds us

and bystanders on the sidewalks

taking pictures of themselves

I mean their corpses exposed to sudden explosion

Baghdad is the homeland

I don’t know, maybe we’re all mixed up

you are the homeland … I made this choice

one day

when its shrapnel tore into me

I shattered on you

I said

you are the homeland

you give the garden some of your time

you give the children all of your time

yesterday you wept

as you stared

at an old photo of Al-Rasheed Street

I don’t know

in your suitcase

I see sadness

cities where mornings come late

well

you want yogurt and dreamy villages

you want a homeland like your youngest son

he sings whenever he fancies

sleeps

dreams

leaps

hangs from the walls

not a homeland eaten by dead stories

you want me

to look at you

as you stare

at a scene that cannot recur

a homeland whose roses envelop you

whose sunset is a song that tastes of fruit

whose morning is an illusion of Fayrouz

there’s not a taste of hope on your tongue

- Translated by Faiza Sultan and Yvette Neisser Moreno.