Here is the Head of Ahmed the Barber
by Gary Steven Corseri
www.dissidentvoice.org
January 15, 2006



 

Here is the head of Ahmed the Barber,
calm in the roadway,
propped on the stump of its too-short neck,
with a small, tight grin, eyes closed,
as if in the middle of a joke or a blink.

In front of the head of Ahmed the Barber:
someone else’s sooty hand,
a woman’s dainty foot (toes polished red)
in a circle of left-over parts;
and beyond this oasis of quiet and calm,
rippling waves of terror growing:
Invaders in desert fatigues running;
police barking; children crying; sirens blaring;
old women keening, beating their breasts.

Ahmed the Barber has no harsh words now
(and, truth be told, he never did).
When the Invaders came he shrugged and whispered,
“They will get tired -- then they will go.” 

He could shave a man in four minutes flat,
and never nicked a face
even when the bombs fell in the souk.
Shiite and Sunni were one to him: 

“Are we not children of the one Father,”
he said, comb and scissors flashing --
“even the Jews who want to disown us?
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob -- and Ishmael.
Poor Ishmael, wandering, wandering …” 

“But the Americans--,” someone protested.
“Like dragons over the seas they come
to the land between rivers, the place of beginnings --
seizing our orchards,
and the black gold beneath --
like the Anglos before them,
sipping their tea …”

“As they do unto others, it must befall them.
So it is written,” said Ahmed,
Spraying cool, scented astringent
on desert-hardened cheeks. 

But now his good face
dreams in the roadway,
and we have no tears to weep for him,
all our tear ducts all dried up.
Quiet it sits, as if calmly waiting. 

Over police now and over Invaders,
rising in cities and the great halls of justice --
implacable, seething waters rising,
vengeful, venomous waves breaking.

Gary Steven Corseri’s articles, poetry, fiction and dramas have appeared at DissidentVoice, CounterPunch, CommonDreams, The New York Times, PBS -- Atlanta, Villlage Voice and elsewhere.  His books include: A Fine Excess; Holy Grail, Holy Grail; and Manifestations (edited).  He can be reached at: corseri@verizon.net

Other Articles and Poems by Gary Corseri

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