I step on dead pigeons
and broken
rotten
e
g
g
s.
The climb to the top of
the
tall
and
nar
r
o
w
minaret
was a continuous desecration of life,
I am afraid.
(For quite unlike the ambiance
of the
e
x p a
n s i
v e
courtyard
below,
so seemingly
alive
with the teaming crowds of worshippers and
tourists alike,
here
I rise sur round ed by the serenity of
death).
The Bride’s* veil is
torn.
The Bride’s body is torn.
Cobwebs and holes fill up the place.
The Forever Pregnant Bride is a victim.
The Forever Aborting Bride is a whore.
She cannot be at peace with her body, it
seems.
Nor with the World.
And the Man who came to make peace
between
the churches and
religions,
between him self and
GOD
is still w a g i n g a war against
her,
a rather old and sinister
holy
war.
“You cannot abort life, o maiden/whore.
You
can only
Step
on
it.
Life is made to be step
ped
upon,
just like the pul ver i zed bones of our
ancestors.”
O hear the clanging of armors.
O hear a young and
foolish Lion
roar:
“Israel is wrong because it is Jewish.
Israel is wrong because the Jews say:
‘We are God’s Chosen People.’”
-
as though Christians and Muslims don’t make similar claims,
as though
r
e
l
e
a
s
e
from oppression is not
a legitimate and sufficient goal
for which
to
aim,
as though we are all destined
to be
re m a d e
in
the image
of
the
enemy. -
The Enemy.
The Enemy.
Who is the Enemy?
Note
* The poem was written shortly Pope
John Paul II’s visit to Damascus in May 2001, during which he made stop at the
historic Ummayad Mosque where Christians believe the head of John the Baptist
us buried.
* The Bride is the name given to the
second tallest minaret in the Umayyad Mosque. I was working as fixer for the
BBC at the time, and the BBC crew and I were allowed to climb to the top of
this minaret to take some shots of the courtyard below.
* Reference to “foolish lion” and his
statement regarding Israel are meant as condemnation of Syrian president,
Bashar Al-Assad whose name means Lion in Arabic. Assad used the Pope’s stop at
the Golan Heights where he went to pray for peace, to call on him to condemn
all Jews who, according to Assad, are now persecuting the Palestinians just
like they had persecuted Christ long ago.