This poem also appears on Mizna.
How Is Your Devastation Today?
By Fady Joudah
Did a particular morning birdsong visit it?
Did innocent grumbling
about a meaningless desire
that has become the meaning of all desire
from one of your kids distract you from it?
Is your espresso machine working fine?
Did a photo or video
of a father sculpting
the rigor mortis of his murdered twins
and their mother sink you?
They say some NGO had helped
throughout her high risk
pregnancy during a war of extermination.
They say the killers had been following
her progress to eliminate her
ninety six hours after C section,
on the day the birth certificates were issued,
a day after the twins were given names.
They say the father refused
to be a collaborator. And the mother,
a physician, a specific kind of witness,
had looked at her killers the wrong way.
She thought they were shit.
They say she hails from my hometown
as does her mother who was also killed.
They say the twins were fraternal.
And the building had sixteen apartments
but only theirs on the top floor was hit.
They say the killers are unconcerned
with your forensic evidence
since they made partner in the archive.
And when my mind drifts
to the Burghers of Calais, they say,
at least those had their lives spared
after guns to their heads
fired blanks. Which changes nothing
of what has become of their faces.
Fady Joudah îs a poet for our times & all. He is the author of five collections; most recently, […]. He has translated several collections of poetry from Arabic and is the co-editor and co-founder of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize.