Not for children
OPENING
الرَّحمٰنِ الرَّحيمِ nadaبِسمِ ال
رَبِّ العالَمينَ nadaالحَمدُ لِلَّ
الرَّحيمِ nadaالرَّح
الدّينِ nada مالِكِ
نَستَعينُ nadaنَعبُدُ وَإِيّ nadaإِيّ
المُستَقيمَ nadaاهدِنَا الصِّ
الضّالّينَ nada المَغضوبِ عَلَيهِم nada الَّذينَ أَنعَمتَ عَلَيهِم nadaصِ
Hemingway would be proud.
ALLAH
Whichever way you turn your heads,
There you’ll find ALLAH.
Allah in the Heavens, Allah on Earth,
Allah on either side.
Allah above, below, behind,
About, within, beside.
Allah the Shadow, Allah the Night,
Allah the Dawning Light.
Allah the Cobwebs, Allah the Paint,
Allah the Summons, the Sour, the Spill.
Allah the Commons, the All, the Got.
Allah is Had and Having Be.
Allah is Is and Isness Does,
Allah the Boil, the Gore, the Stump,
Allah the Coil, the Tremble, the Quake,
The Ravage, the Carnage, the Pill, the Bile,
The Thing inside your snot.
Allah the Village, the Terror, the Clad.
Allah the Finished and how it began,
Allah the Found and Found Forgotten,
The Certain, All Begot.
The Lord of All and All is His,
فَأَنَّىٰ تُؤْفَكُونَ
Allah the Shelf, the Box, the Aisle,
Allah the Checkout, Allah the Cart,
The Mannequin sans head sans face,
Allah the Flannel and Corduroy,
Allah the Huggies, Allah the Tide,
Allah the Crest, the Tylenol,
Allah the Mickey Mouse Mario
Clorox Kellogg’s Coca-Cola Morton Hershey’s Hostess Heinz,
Allah the Visa Mastercard,
Allah the Eyeball Seared and Slit.
Allah the Fleeting, Allah the While,
Allah the miniscule Infantile.
Allah the Pillar, Allah the Ditch,
Allah the Beggar, the Giver, the Rich,
Allah the Fish. Allah the Slime, the Gunk, the Fill,
Allah the Dung, the Wince, the Rot,
The Green, the Pale, the Gawk, the Gasp,
Allah the Death, the Syphilis,
The Sperm, the Cleave, the Goo.
Allah the Winter, Allah the Wine,
Allah the Parkland Columbine.
Allah the Ring –
Hubalullah the Lucifer King.
Allah the Blight, the Tall, the Shrine,
Allah the Smoke, the Rise, the Fog,
The Faces from the South, the Eye,
The Doom, the Splitplitlititt t t t t t + + + + × × × × o x o x o x o x o
Allah the Croak, the Scale, the Slither,
The Slime, the Twirl, the Twiddle,
The Ribbit, the Curl, the Buzz, the Fizz,
The Writhe, the Wiggle Bizzle mizzlezizz
Allah the Maggot, the Vermin, the Worm,
The Tick, the Tack, the Phlegm, the Scut.
Allah the Sod, the Mud, the Clay,
The Bark, the Chirp by the river, the Bray,
Allah the Question,
Allah the Call,
Allah the Ripple, the Echo, the Whistle,
Allah the Whittle, the Tickle, the Leaf,
Allah the Reach,
The Pace, the Thump, the Tempo, the Throb.
Allah the Suckle, the Rise, the Pause,
Allah the Winnows, the Flutter, the Peel.
Allah the Mountain on the edge of my Hand,
Glorious Hand! To Us Belongs
Dominion and Return.
NOTES
OPENING “In the name of God, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy! / Praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds, / the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy / Master of the Day of Judgement. / It is You we worship; it is You we ask for help. / Guide us to the straight path: / the path of those You have blessed, those who incur no anger and who have not gone astray.” Al-Fātiha, the Quran 1:1-7. trans. M. A. S. Abdel Haleem. nada “nothing” in Spanish. Hemingway, Ernest (1899-1961); “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”. Whichever…find Allah The Quran 2:115. Allah in…Earth The Quran 2:255. Allah on either side The Quran 3:191. Dawning Light The Quran 113:1. فَأَنَّىٰ تُؤْفَكُونَ “So how are you led astray?” The Quran 40:62. sans without. Clorox…Heinz “Song of Myself, 2” by Walt Whitman. Parkland Columbine American school shootings. Hubal a pagan god of pre-Islamic Arabia. Mountain on…Hand “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” by Jimi Hendrix; The Quran 59:21; The Bible KJV Ecclesiastes 9:1. Glorious…Return The Quran 36:83.
Continue to April.
Back to Poetry.
Yousef Alqamoussi 