The Traveling Bags Poem by Majid Alhydar

The traveling bags
By: Majid Alhydar

- And what do the soldiers carry
In their traveling bags?
- Old socks,
Prayers of the grandmother,
Sleeping pills
And a picture of the little beloved brunette.
- And what do the soldiers do when they arrive
To the new slaughterhouse?
- They will unload the cooking pots and the tents
They will erect two bathrooms made of tin;
One, on the right, for His Excellency the Commander,
One, on the left, for Their Excellency the officers.
They will dig a temporary draining ditch
In a fold of land wrapped in camel’s thorn.
They will look to the sky.. to the clouds.
They will curse, they will damn, and dream
About death, about running away, and about the blind night missiles.
- And what will the soldiers take with them on decamping?
- Cooking pots,
Their folded Tents,
The bags of dead comrades,
A bitterness in the mouth,
The smell of phenol,
Confused, distracted eyes,
And a prick…deep in the heart

2002