Ibrahim El-Salahi

THE THIRD BIRTH

The curtains are drawn.

Thus, as the saying goes, the tragedy has begun to unfold.

Thus, you retire, and thus,

Thus, we say, we say thus, we say and say and thus . . .

In the smoke blanket of the past, the universe is engulfed.

With the tongue of the burning silence,

I knock on the door of doors.

Let the mute speak up. Let the mute speak up,

And the curtains are drawn.

Then the day of the beginning comes

When time’s spine bent,

The earth’s surface hunched,

The plains and ravines lost their bloom,

The glass was emptied.

The river course sank under the mirage rivers,

And dust clouds invaded all eyes.

The day when “ashes to ashes” returned, that was the beginning.

Ibrahim El-Salahi: This is called “The Third Birth.” It is about what happened after I was released from jail. It is a poem, and these are very complicated words, because I’m trying to talk about how things start and how things end and what happens in between. The process of change and movement and suffering, whatever happens to us in our world, goes on for some time but has to have an end. Every beginning has to have an end.