On The Road To Baghdad Poem by Taher Shemaly

By the yellowish air and the ashes
down by the long road to the aches
I shall let my tongue judge and say
what for my heart could not just stay
on the long road of agony and sorrow
on the road to Baghdad did I follow

Oh Basra, have I seen your old days
when my elders came across the banks
Did or did not, the bloody history say
how then or now got swept by the tanks
Patience, O patience did lose its way away
to the heart before it can say to you thanks

And on the path of darkdom walked I
along the banks where Euphrates did lie
Escaped the heart before the steps of the holy
when I reached the lands of Najaf, the jolly
But what happiness am I seeking in here
it raced before me and went not any near

There I see the sight of my hammering tears
where the golden dome of dignity stands
Karbala, O Karbala, what agony did you bear
and what holy legs fell down with the hands
In you, this little heart swept out the fear
just to remember where the diginity stands

Wondering I am and my thought was away
would it be the same if Tigris was my way
Yet along the path of the blue history in far
I see the ruins of this heart and the Allahu-Akbar
There when once was there a minaret of height
when there was a love to be taken with its weight

Samarra, my beloved, to silence you went?
or shy to look at your lovers with agony?
Shy be not, and shy shall I go with guilt
damned the hand that broke your harmony
Three times O my lonely town down the thrift
but to whom my shouts go, O sweeter than honey?

And here I am, on the gates of sadness
where I should forget the word 'happiness'
Here is Baghdad O passer by say salute
where life and death are equal in loot
Hold your heart and walk through the stings
and remember the death smell that rings

Let the tears pour down on the goldish sky
where my Kazimain lie peacefully and calm
Peacefully as in few moments of feeling high
as peacefully as to cause to me no single harm
What blackish path I ask myself that I did try
O Baghdad, verily for death, you have a charm