1 Whenever I want to drink from the glass The glass of poison As Socrates did. I remember you And I throw the glass away. 2 Whenever I want to travel throughout the Heaven As Dante did Or to have my brother and myself lost As Joseph’s brothers did Or to enter the fire As Abraham did. I remember you And I stop traveling, Loss, And fire. 3 All right, then If you take me back to life. All right … But what is the solution When death, my faithful friend, Does not stop knocking at my door? Tell him with the innocence of your heart Not to come back Ere we meet On the peak of letter Mountain Or in exile Or in legend. 4 All right, then For me to resume practicing my role In the drama of the lost humanity. A drama that continued from Babylon to Baghdad To Beirut, Berlin and London Then surely ended in hell. All right, then To resume practicing my role As your father. But I can not talk well to you Since your alphabet is six thousand years old Nor can I dance well with you For my white and red blood cells Have been exhausted by oppression and captivity Nor can I give you advice Because you are more mature Then the queen bee. 5 That is how things are I bend before you Like an emaciated lion Ruined by years, loneliness and earthquake. I bend before you And ask you again Nay, I beg you as an Indian beggar To let me drink the glass of poison And I promise you I will never drink it again, My daughter! *** * Kelmat is the name of the poet’s daughter. She is ten years old as the poet writes this poem.