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Science of Mind
Fall 2007   Vol. 24 #1
Fall 2007   Vol. 24 #1

Poems/Not Poems | Poetry Saves: War & Peace Poems

Humiliated in the Shackles

By Sami al Haj

 
 

 

When I heard pigeons cooing in the trees,

Hot tears covered my face.

 

When the lark chirped, my thoughts composed

A message for my son.

 

Mohammad, I am afflicted.

In my despair, I have no one but Allah for comfort.

 

The oppressors are playing with me,

As they move freely around the world.

 

They ask me to spy on my countrymen,

Claiming it would be a good deed.

 

They offer me money and land,

And freedom to go where I please.

 

Their temptations seize

My attention like lightning in the sky.

 

But their gift is an empty snake,

Carrying hypocrisy in its mouth like venom,

 

They have monuments to liberty

And freedom of opinion, which is well and good.

 

But I explained to them that

Architecture is not justice.

 

America, you ride on the backs of orphans,

And terrorize them daily.

 

Bush, beware.

The world recognizes an arrogant liar.

 

To Allah I direct my grievance and my tears.

I am homesick and oppressed.

 

Mohammad, do not forget me.

Support the cause of your father, a God-fearing man.

 

I was humiliated in the shackles.

How can I now compose verses? How can I now write?

 

After the shackles and the nights and the suffering and the tears,

How can I write poetry?

 

My soul is like a roiling sea, stirred by anguish,

Violent with passion.

 

I am a captive, but the crimes are my captors’.

I am overwhelmed with apprehension.

 

Lord, unite me with my son Mohammad.

Lord, grant success to the righteous.

 

 

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

 

Originally published in Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak, copyright © 2007 by the University of Iowa Press, www.uiowapress.org, all rights reserved.

Topics

Guantanamo, Incarceration, Poetry, Suffering, War


Author

Sami al Haj, a Sudanese national, was a journalist covering the conflict in Afghanistan for the television station al-Jazeera when, in 2001, he was taken into custody and stripped of his passport and press card. Handed over to U.S. forces in January 2002, he was tortured at both Bagram air base and Kandahar before being transferred to Guantánamo Bay in June 2002. The U.S. military alleged that he worked as a financial courier for Chechen rebels and that he assisted al Qaeda and extremist figures, but offered the public no evidence in support of these allegations. At the time of publication, Haj was still at Guantánamo. He was released in 2008.

Author

Sami al Haj, a Sudanese national, was a journalist covering the conflict in Afghanistan for the television station al-Jazeera when, in 2001, he was taken into custody and stripped of his passport and press card. Handed over to U.S. forces in January 2002, he was tortured at both Bagram air base and Kandahar before being transferred to Guantánamo Bay in June 2002. The U.S. military alleged that he worked as a financial courier for Chechen rebels and that he assisted al Qaeda and extremist figures, but offered the public no evidence in support of these allegations. At the time of publication, Haj was still at Guantánamo. He was released in 2008.

 
 
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