One of my not-so-guilty pleasures is the Bulaq podcast.
We look at new writing from Syria and about the experiences of Syrian refugees, including Ramy Al-Asheq’s Ever Since I Did Not Die, a book he categorizes not as poetry or prose but as “pieces of my body, haphazardly brought together in a paper bag.”
So Kill Them Back!
The below excerpt from the book Ever Since I Did Not Die struck me, and I’ve added it to my list.
Going back kills you.
A child running from his innocent features kills you, to become a hero.
But heroism ends up killing him.
It kills whatever can grow in a child who is planning to grow up.
There is no hero on that land sown with injustice and war.
There is no hero there except for death, standing victorious as it awaits your flesh.
The spreadout dirt of worms and intermittent wailing fades to silence.
Eventually, you fade too.
No one says your name anymore.
A child sinking in the drowning sea of death kills you.
A child born to be killed kills you.
A child born to kill kills you.
Yearning, love, family, light, age, god, homeland, and sea, kill you.
Earth, paradise, memories of old photos, mourning’s enterouage, happiness as waste, and exile, kill you.
Revolution, women of death, and grandmother’s stories, kill you.
Return kills you.
Going back kills you.
So kill them back.
It’s really worth listening to. The passage starts at about the ~15:00 mark.
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Carrying the Gun 