Esmail/by Mahnaz Badihian

Esmail

For Esmail Khoi (Iranian poet in exile)

 

I’m talking to you Ismail.

when was the last time you had

a sip from the Caspian Sea

for your dreams to come true

 

When was the last time

your heavy shoulders

warmed up with happiness while

walking across Persepolis

 

Tell me, Ismail,

when was the last time

your laughter splashed

 on your poems

on those cruel lonely days

 

did I see you quietly crying

walking across King’s Cross

remembering your country

and the ones you left behind

 

Tell me, Ismail, your heart couldn’t

tolerate life without

a  cup-to-cup feast of drink

when you lost the things you loved

 

Where’s this road ending, Ismail

read me your longest poem

In the moments left to us.

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 I worte this poem ten years ago when Esmail spend a week in our house in Marin County SF