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:
Can you see the fist in my head, Jams?
Thanks for sharing.
Jesus, that was DARK!!
Sean, Crushed Grim stuff eh?
Very dark indeed!
This poem is so powerful I had to share it Cherie
Powerful is good it breaks the barriers and makes us think
Agreed Valleys Mam. This one certainly does that
Yes, very powerful. I am going to read it again now.
Glad you like it Welshcakes. It deserves to be considered as one of the great war poems....
Jams, you are exploring the dark side of life. A very powerful vision, one we would try to avoid looking at.
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)
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.
I hadn;t heard that EWBL. That's not good news.
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