Twenty-Five Laments for Iraq

The muzzein voices break the night
Telling us of what we are composed:
Coffee grits; a transparency of sugar;
The ghost of the cardomom in the cup's mosque.

*

These soldiers will not marry.
They are wed already
To the daughters of uranium.

*

Sherazade sits
In heat and dust
Watching her bucket fill.
This is the first story.

*

Before hunger
                  Thirst.
Before prayer
                  Thirst.
Before money
                  Thirst.
...