The Global Rape Poem by TALAL KASSAD

There I was, but there I’ll go again.
Towards an eastern land I make my way,
Wherefrom arose the sun-like beauty,
Wherein the sunshine used to be all day.
But something strange befell the globe.
The east became no longer east.
For, though at noon, the sun was hiding
And hid with it the gleam of hope.
On such a low if weighty land
The virgin girl was once abiding,
The voice of whom resounding
“The voice of peace”

By no means was she nonnative,
Nor was her peace less native in her heart
Until, by cannons of injustice,
He tore her simple breast apart.
He stripped her peaceful clothing
To wear them in disguise
Not before he stained them by his fingers
Nor before he wove them into lies.

But so audacious was he
That with his most unyielding fingers
He never failed to pluck her eyes
Which, when weeping, oozed with peace
Which, when laughing, oozed with love

But much to her dismay,
He left her none but something banned.
He left the name of terrorism.
He left the seeds he sowed upon this land-
The seeds of horrors,
The seeds of terrors.
But then as time went by,
The one-time seeds would leave the womb
To be revenged upon the father of the crime,
To be revenged upon a man, so asinine,
Upon a man whose rape was epoch-making,
A man who raped the name of Palestine.