My Soldier, My Stranger
Scherezade Siobhan
wherever the war tanks
in their mineral tableau
amble as titans to slaughter
sit & tug
at the cradle of this doubt
nest its wefts
as wasps do thorns
as rug-sellers with
mint tea tone
palming balkan kilims
lip the brim
of its slim oasis
welcome the sun,
its burning yarrow
pick me a flower
from your city’s gut
line my ankles
with a refugee’s red ink
the speed of squalor
is meteoric between us
it travels beyond
these garbage domes
as a rooster’s
guttural horn
plucks honeycombs
out of the alphabet
alif
laam
mim
save me your sabbath
save me souks of black olives
save me the dictator’s idol
from each palindrome march of peace
you are shams-e-tabrizi
books flung into fountains
a shepherd of asphodels
guarding the graveyards
you are death. you are desire
its extempore. its lung. its liquor.
its tongue cocked. its eyes spellbound
you are cities cut into cigarette burns
aleppo. cairo. marrakesh
my Gilgamesh, you are
a stray dog
a wishbone
locking shut
the empty room
of every hungry throat
in their mineral tableau
amble as titans to slaughter
sit & tug
at the cradle of this doubt
nest its wefts
as wasps do thorns
as rug-sellers with
mint tea tone
palming balkan kilims
lip the brim
of its slim oasis
welcome the sun,
its burning yarrow
pick me a flower
from your city’s gut
line my ankles
with a refugee’s red ink
the speed of squalor
is meteoric between us
it travels beyond
these garbage domes
as a rooster’s
guttural horn
plucks honeycombs
out of the alphabet
alif
laam
mim
save me your sabbath
save me souks of black olives
save me the dictator’s idol
from each palindrome march of peace
you are shams-e-tabrizi
books flung into fountains
a shepherd of asphodels
guarding the graveyards
you are death. you are desire
its extempore. its lung. its liquor.
its tongue cocked. its eyes spellbound
you are cities cut into cigarette burns
aleppo. cairo. marrakesh
my Gilgamesh, you are
a stray dog
a wishbone
locking shut
the empty room
of every hungry throat
Scherezade Siobhan is an Indo-Roma psychologist, writer, and maker of world's finest Spanish omelettes. Her work has been published/is forthcoming in tnYPress, Black and Blue Writing, PIX Quarterly, The Nervous Breakdown, Cordite Poetry Review, Fractal Literary Magazine, Electric Cereal, Bluestem, and others. Her first collection of poetry, Bone Tongue, was released by Thought Catalog books in 2015. She is a Best of the Net Anthology and Pushcart Prize nominee for writing as well as a former international features writer for Global Comment. nihilistwaffles@gmail.com / viperslang.tumblr.com / @zaharaesque.