The Axis of Evil

July 27, 2006
iranian.com
Persian original

I’ve come from the axis of evil:

many people live in the axis of evil,

many that you have never known,

like eighteen million Iranian children,

like ten million Iraqi children,

like six million Libiyan, Egyptian, and Palestinian children,

and like all the others you have ever seen

they enjoy swinging, playing ball, and making bubbles;

they too laugh at clowns who tumble on the circus floor

spinning their huge red noses in the air,

and like your own children

their bones are of earth,

their blood of water,

their breaths of air,

and like your own children

they have sipped milk, toddled, and babbled incommunicable songs,

and like your own children

they have had the right to wake up tomorrow morning

only if your bombs had not crumpled their beds last night ...

Yes,

I’ve come from the axis of evil

and brought this news with me:

your forgiving gods have all died,

and it’s been centuries since earth has uncontrollably rocked

like a cradle’s silhouette

in the hands of its grieving mother.

Leila Farjami is a published poet, translator, Family and Child Psychotherapist, and Art Therapist in Southern California. Visit her web log at LeilafFarjami.blogspot.com