Poem 073, Sonnet 29: Departure Poem by Samer Madbak

A few more days and I’ll desert this land
This little Motherland that fostered me
Off to a different vault, a foreign strand
A stranger ocean, Lo! My destiny!

Another week at most and I shall flee
And life will snatch me from my mother’s breast
And throw me at the kerb of quandary
To beg despair and garner up unrest

Soon, soon, this sapling shall forfeit her grove
And dig her callow roots in meagre clay
And yearning shall consume her buds, and love
Shall rack her veins and wilt her heart away

Shortly, I shall depart and aught remain
Bar sweet remembrances and tow’ring pain!


Beirut
April 27th 1990