Fine ash
By Roger Sedarat
March 14, 2002
The Iranian
Dear regime,
After you've ground him into powder,
.........you can burn this to a fine ash. His family
feels
it would be better off with nothing.
My Father returned from Iran with everything but his bones.
He said customs claimed them as government property.
.........We laid him on a Persian carpet in front of
the television.
.........When I'd hold his wrist to his face
because he wanted to know the time,
I could see the holes made from swords in his elbow.
His arm reminded me of kabob koobideigh.
It was hard for him to look outside;
he said the cumulus clouds
were too much like marrow
.........and he couldn't stand watching the dog
sniff the backyard, searching
.........for the rest of him. We put him to bed, my
sister and I,
.........thinking that beside Mom he'd turn
into himself,
but through the door we only heard him crying,
.........telling his wife he could never again make
love,
.........and through the keyhole we saw Mom shivering
with him
wrapped around her like an old blanket
.........until he died in the morning,
.........and she folded him into a rectangle,
mailing him in a white shoebox
back to his country
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