25 September 2008

The Necklace - Simin Behbahani

Touched and deranged,

downcast and sad;

with veilless face,

and no chador;

heedless of arrest,

careless of the Guards.

For eyes she has

two red grapes

fallen off the bunch.

She's mad,

stark staring mad;

she's lost,

lost to herself,

lost to the world.

A straw in the wind,

she's drifting around.

A graveless body,

she's deadened to the world.

Round her neck she has

a pair of teardrops, a curse:

of a dead soldier boots

with laces tied together.

"What's that?", I said.

"My son", she said,

"sitting on my shoulders

13 comments:

Sean Jeating said...

Can you see the fist in my head, Jams?
Thanks for sharing.

Crushed said...

Jesus, that was DARK!!

jams o donnell said...

Sean, Crushed Grim stuff eh?

CherryPie said...

Very dark indeed!

jams o donnell said...

This poem is so powerful I had to share it Cherie

Anonymous said...

Powerful is good it breaks the barriers and makes us think

jams o donnell said...

Agreed Valleys Mam. This one certainly does that

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Yes, very powerful. I am going to read it again now.

jams o donnell said...

Glad you like it Welshcakes. It deserves to be considered as one of the great war poems....

jmb said...

Jams, you are exploring the dark side of life. A very powerful vision, one we would try to avoid looking at.

jams o donnell said...

I am inded but it is a superb work. This is the consequence of war (it was written at the time of the Iran-Iraq war)

elasticwaistbandlady said...

Coming on the heels of the report of shots fired between Americans and Pakistanis on the Afghan border, this poem becomes all the more meaningful.

jams o donnell said...

I hadn;t heard that EWBL. That's not good news.