Thursday, August 24, 2006

Sentences

We kick them out so we can
fill the silence with nonsense;
_____a friendship dwindled
_____into the vestige of a dream.

The hallway stretches ahead
once more like a phone call
lagging a world in between.

Letters scratched off cereal boxes;
a life crammed into
the distance of a scream.
Replay the rhyme
like a country expecting
like the waiting,
____recurring
__________recurring
_____recurring,
__________recurrin'.
Welcome the words back
still dusty from the rubble;
the ones that made it will do.

Those missing, have done their job;
they'll remain somewhere
in a sentence, in a thought.

Incomplete sentences are sentences,
too, in some languages
where the dead have names.

But for now, only hint at them--
you never knew them,
they never knew today.

Stick the alphabet, one after the other,
down the graves
where the soil is supple still.

One day a sentence will begin again
written with characters
they once knew.

They spelled their names
with all the voices of the earth
in a corner where the shadows never heave.

12 comments:

katy said...

"One day a sentence will begin again
written with characters
they once knew."


is it cheap or cheating to repeat the word of a poet back to him?

when they remember you, ashraf, they'll remember this one.

Mar said...

May they Rest In Peace, in a much better place .

Ghassan said...

your name is awfully familiar, I am sure we meet before...

arch.memory said...

Katy, dear, I don't think it's cheap. But thanks for the flattery (me likey!)

Mar, yes, more and more I believe that, sadly.

Ghassan, if I am not mistaken we were partners in the physics lab at AUB. Right?

Ghassan said...

Ah... maybe.
very nice posts by the way.

arch.memory said...

Thanks, Ghassan!

Ben Heine said...

Thanks for your beautiful Blog I added your url on mine. Cheers. And keep struggling for your country. Ben

Anonymous said...

So much imagery weaving in and out like life morphing into new realities with a magician's touch. As you can see, your poem is thought provoking. Well done.

_z. said...

Great Poem Ashraf... I think you speak for all of us. At least you portray my feelings better than I am able to these days.

arch.memory said...

Ben, Jo, Z: Thank you so much!
Ben, I love your cartoons! I added a link back (I know I have to work on my categories and organization of links; some other time...)
Jo: I added a link to your blog, too; welcome to the Carnival!
Ziad, linked from way before ;)

_z. said...

you are too mate!

Russell Ragsdale said...

Great poem Ashraf! I rode the sorrow laced with hope all the way to it's logical end.