Ashbah

The ghosts of American soldiers

wander the streets of Balad by night,

unsure of their way home, exhausted,

the desert wind blowing trash

down the narrow alleys as a voice

sounds from the minaret, a soulful call

reminding them how alone they are,

how lost. And the Iraqi dead,

they watch in silence from rooftops

as date palms line the shore in silhouette,

leaning toward Mecca when the dawn wind blows.

(Ashbah means “ghost.”)

From the Fall 2007 issue of Inquiring Mind (Vol. 24, No. 1)

Brian Turner served for seven years in the U.S. Army. He was an infantry team leader for a year in Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. In 1999–2000 he was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina with the 10th Mountain Division. His poetry has been published in the Voices in Wartime Anthology; Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Home Front, in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families; and in many journals. He received a 2007 NEA Literature Fellowship in Poetry.

By Brian Turner

From the Fall 2007 issue of Inquiring Mind (Vol. 24, No. 1)

Originally published in Here, Bullet © 2005 by Brian Turner. Reprinted with the permission of Alice James Books.

Author

Author