The Apprehensions Of Corrupt Times Poem by suleiman al-fulayyih

And I have dreamt today, mother
‏of winds storming the grazing lands
‏holding back my horses
‏expelling my camels
‏lashing me in public with a snake
‏tying me behind my tribe's campsite
‏and when thirsty, it serves me my blood mother, it has stretched in its tyranny

***
‏And yesterday I saw, mother, horses with severed heads invading my tribe

‏And I saw a woman over a banner hoisted chanting my name
‏naked, blood-ridden
‏I saw ruby coloured clouds racing over our campsite
Showering our tribe's men with firewater and the spirit of poison.
‏And I saw you, mother, in anguish
spreading sand between the dead
‏gathering left over flesh
‏and I saw a crow as great as the night
‏crowing around me
‏circling around the tent, neglecting my presence
‏stealing my child
‏and flying far away
‏leaving me wallowing in the black sand

‏I lost my sanity
‏I saw lions roaring whispers
‏I saw dogs barking at the sun
‏I saw voracious wolves
‏I saw crowds of black ants on flowers
‏I saw drunken goats

***

‏And I have dreamt today, mother, of the long tamarisk branches
‏protruding out of the horses' corpses
‏turning into yellow buds


‏smelling of a stony scent
‏intertwined like the horns of deer
‏mushrooming like a terminal anxiety
‏the teeth of the night chews on it
‏vomiting it on the flowery face of dusk
‏in the face of whorish times
‏spitting on a generation's face
‏and I saw the big cities running across the desert's mirage
‏hunted by a tiring sense of fear
‏chased by a terrifying sickness
‏the devil of estrangement and evil
‏breaking it stone by stone.
‏And I saw falcons, black-ear kites, and penguins hovering over the cities I saw the blood of its kin

‏dripping from the vulture's claws
‏I saw an eagle hijacking a palace
‏and saw snakes in the horizon
‏drawing rainbows
‏I saw faces on terraces.
‏wearing ghostly masks
‏ I saw minds on the streets
‏drinking a salty toast

***

‏Mother, is this a nightmare or an illusion?
‏or is it something approaching, or...
‏is this isolating restlessness a dream?

‏but, since awakening, I felt when laying my head
‏on the tent's cord
feeling the grass
‏like spikes it stings me
The cord severs th neck
‏ and it moves from wasit (middle column) towards the 'uqda (the knot on
‏the peg)

***

‏And I have dreamt, mother, that I was blindfolded
‏And my tribe's campsite pilfered
‏And the heads of my men plastered to the wall And I saw you mother not crying
‏Because tears are crucified
‏and because the 'uqda is now tied to the wasit.