An Unaccountable Life

In June, soon after I'd arrived home, I stumbled upon a blog called Poem of the Week. The author of the blog, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had just posted an anonymous poem from Iran. The piece made a deep impression on me; they are haunting words spoken from the rooftops of a country in distress. I remember thinking, wishing, that the piece would stay a while, for me, for others, so we could remember her voice. It seemed wrong somehow that it would become just another poem of just another week. I wanted it to stay - and that is precisely what it did. Months have passed and the author has posted nothing since this poem. Is this an experiment on his part? What has become of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? What of the poet on the rooftop? People still continue to comment on this piece, but mostly to say Come Back! to the vanished blogger. It is a mystery.




Friday the 19th of June, 2009
Tomorrow, Saturday
Tomorrow is a day of destiny
Tonight the cries of Allah-o Akhbar
Are heard louder and louder than the nights before
Where is this place?
Where is this place where every door is closed?
Where is this place where people are simply calling God?
Where is this place where the sound of Allah-o Akhbar gets louder
and louder?
I wait every night to see if the sounds will get louder and whether
the number increases
It shakes me
I wonder if God is shaken

Where is this place where so many innocent people are entrapped?
Where is this place where no one comes to our aid?
Where is this place where only with our silence we are sending our
voices to the world?
Where is this place where the young shed blood and then people
go and pray?
Standing on that same blood and pray?

Where is this place where the citizens are called vagrants?
Where is this place?
You want me to tell you?
This place is Iran
The homeland of you and me
This place is Iran.