Poems

We are the Iraqis

The American soldiers in the helicopter throw leaflets with tattooed arms over our women sleeping on the rooftops
 
We are the Iraqis
 
Daily at breakfast our mothers put sectarianism in our plates, we eat it until we reach our mouths 
 
We are the Iraqis
 
We make the doors of our houses from iron so we can rust behind them
 
We are the Iraqis
 
We shoot when one of us dies so as to kill the other
 
We are the Iraqis
 
We battle with the rooster and wipe off our blood
 
We are the Iraqis
 
The military dogs scratch their noses in our eyes at the checkpoints
 
We are the Iraqis
 
We plant graves in front of our houses
 
We are the Iraqis
 
We scurry around the food aid truck like prayer beads cut at a wake
 
We are the Iraqis
 
The coffin with its small sides unites our shoulders
 
We are the Iraqis
 
The same fingers that we gathered shells with as children
we now use to count the dead
 
We are the Iraqis
 
We don’t take the dried heads down from the garden fences
 
We are the Iraqis
 
With the same soap we wash our hands to eat
and with the same soap we wash the blood off our hands
 
We are the Iraqis
 
We pull out our rotten years every day
and queue up at a mass grave
 
We are the Iraqis
 
In the summer under the concrete casts we wait for the buses like washed shoes
 
We are the Iraqis
 
We use weapons as a pillow and cover ourselves in the bomb dough
 
We are the Iraqis
 
A sleeping worm in the apple of the world!!