Zekria Ibrahimi
A Thousand and One Bombs
or New Regimes for Old
Baghdad.
A thousand and one bombs.
Shine the Cruise missiles once,
Twice,
Three times,
And magical wishes,
Degenerate into grey, messy lies.
War, the malign genie,
Is let out of the silicon chip.
Open Sesame,
And American soldiers
(That is, thieves with tanks)
Stride amidst the oil wells-
Unfortunately, the black treasure
Has acquired a nasty crimson hue;
Petroleum grows putrid with accumulated gore.
New regimes for old
Prove to be phoney tricks,
A sinister sleight of hand,
Dangerous political conjuring.
President Aladdin,
A clown in a brutal pantomime,
Bizarre torturer of A- rabs,
Patriotic, sniggering crusher of cities,
Is as dumb as a dime...
A thousand and one bombs.
Shine the Cruise missiles once,
Twice,
Three times,
And magical wishes,
Degenerate into grey, messy lies.
War, the malign genie,
Is let out of the silicon chip.
Open Sesame,
And American soldiers
(That is, thieves with tanks)
Stride amidst the oil wells-
Unfortunately, the black treasure
Has acquired a nasty crimson hue;
Petroleum grows putrid with accumulated gore.
New regimes for old
Prove to be phoney tricks,
A sinister sleight of hand,
Dangerous political conjuring.
President Aladdin,
A clown in a brutal pantomime,
Bizarre torturer of A- rabs,
Patriotic, sniggering crusher of cities,
Is as dumb as a dime...
Page(s) 19
magazine list
- Features
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- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The