The right of freedom of speech consists in speaking the truth. - Emir Ali ibn Abi Taleb, May Allah be pleased with him and his Ahl Bayt
17.5.06
A Bright Movie*
The saris go by me from the embassies.
-The Woman at the Washington Zoo
by Randall Jarrell
Whilst gadding about and on the way back
this long story started to end as it should
in the middle. Stopped on a corner,
saw the same one-legged old man there
sitting on the curb. In a country like this
no one has a sign: Will Work For Food
because that would be just too
crowded. It used to be that he'd stand
on that one leg to collect alms for himself
but now times are tough he has to wait
to be called over. Not like the guy
in the wheelchair on the East Side who gets
out onto the macadam between twelve
chaotic lanes, God Only Knows How
(probably dropped off by a taxi, must be).
Not like the kid up by the Phoenicia
whose hands were burnt clean off
who smiles and earns so much for that smile.
His job is easy. But a one legged man
has a different problem in a bad economy.
Standing on one leg for hours isn't what you'd call
easy. You don't do it for nothing.
So I stopped and called him over,
I'd passed him by at least five times in three months
to avoid pissing off the guy in the rear view mirror.
This time though I called him over to hand him a fiver.
Five times one thousand equals roughly five thousand.
It was good and I noticed the girl behind me
doing the same, dragging coins out of the purse
that must have been in her lap. It felt good.
I knew that if I hadn't stopped she wouldn't have either.
I lost her near the airport tunnel. You know
how it is in the subterranean tunnel that
goes right under the Hariri International tarmac.
I was just about to enter when I saw everyone
coming out the other way, HCE. Turn around.
Lucky today it seems because once you get in
that tunnel and there is an accident, you
are in there. Full of exhaust and exhaustion,
pushing and shoving until two lanes turn into four.
You smoke three cigarettes that you didn't need.
You get tired of listening to the Eagles sing
about Winslow Arizona ONE MORE TIME.
You get out and head back up the wrong way
on an exit ramp but that's okay, in Lebanon
everyone knows what you're doing. They
would do the same. Like yesterday's fender
bender in the Ouzai. Not paying attention
and wham! Right into the back of a taxi.
The driver gets out and he's mad. I'm ready
to fight it, to say he is a taxi driver and I'm
ready to do that when a thirty kg kid squeezes
between me and the city bus.
"What are you doing there kid? Move away,
you are going to get hit." He was just trying
to help. In Lebanon the kids settle disasters
too, they've seen so much and damn if they
don't have the audacity to tell you how to
handle a fender bender. The boy did what I
told him to do and seemed rather pleased
that I'd thought enough of him to tell him
to get out from between me and the bus.
The taxi driver is there at my window.
I just ask him, instead of fighting it all,
"What do you want from me? Is twenty
bucks okay?" Sure is. I know once I drive
away he would have settled for ten and he
knows too, he could have asked for thirty.
A deal is a deal though and we drive away
pleased. Some poor man leans in my window
and says, "Hamdu'la sah'lahme" which to me
sounds an awful lot like Thanks for the salami.
But it means, Thank God you weren't hurt.
I agree and he reminds me, "Haram, he is
a taxi driver." Means that twenty bucks is like
thirty customers and worth a bit of bent chrome.
I left the scene of the accident feeling pretty good.
Today as I avoided the tunnel wondering
about the bodies that might have been there,
the ones I could have seen had I had the time
for the Eagles and three more cancer sticks,
I cruised through the old airport road that starts
right by Fadallah's Mobil station, a station
that gives everything to orphans
(reminded myself to go there next time to buy gas) .
I enjoyed the following like popcorn at the show:
carcasses of sheeps and goats and cows
still bleeding into the gutters plastic balls
in net bags voluptuous Shia girls some
covered and some not taxis stopping every
few meters letting out little old men and haggard
old women muffler shops and bread stores until
finally I saw what it was I was after. A sign that read:
The School of Opulent Knowledge, a little run down
but all the same, extravagantly fufilling.
**This poem suffered under a horrible name. This weekend while in South Lebanon I watched the movie Syriana with old what's his name...from Ocean's Seven....and boy! What a bunch of plotless bullshit. And the parts about Beirut...so out of context. Since the movie takes place now...post 9/11 and in the Era of so-called "Oil Wars" how is it that in Beirut the stage is set with Freedom Fighters on buildings with machine guns? Now...back in the early to mid eighties there were a few of those but mid to late 90's? Nope. But that is the point of propaganda......to make you confused. Never was there a more beautiful depiction of confusion. But the great part is the hero (in the end) just goes home like Bilbo Baggins with some kind of 'knowledge' ring...we are supposed to believe and that knowledge is that there is no POINT to these things that people do in the Middle East to each other. It's just sort of a crazy game played by oil tycoons.
ZIONISM mentioned in the plot? Oh sure...I guess you could call it that "protocols of zion" type of thing and they flash on some old newsreel of the Rockafellers.....right in the beginning. And that's it. Nary a mention of the single most IMPORTANT cause of the crisis in the MIDDLE EAST.
A type of racism and bigotry and all out HATRED of a large number of people called:
ZIONISM. There you have it. And yes...see the movie. It is worth a scratch on the head and perhaps one in the crotch. (You know Arab men are always scratching their crotches and thank the Lord this is never portrayed in movies...God only knows what devastation that might provoke in the 'civilized' nations...you know the ones...like American that support Zionism and Christian Zionism to the tune of several billions of dollars yearly).
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4 comments:
Ah! A day in the life. I was right there with all of it. I could smell the exhaust and feel the humidity. Strong work!
Seems to me you just experienced the school of opulent knowledge. So much experience in a single journey if we but pay attention. So many would not have stopped for the one legged man, so many wouldn't have bargained the accident, so many just sit in the tunnel as their blood pressure rises waiting to be somewhere else...
I do so love your writing.jmifykhs
Really...a sincere thank you to both of you. Ozy...you are one loyal reader and I appreciate it. My sister up there...well she HAS to read it hahaha. Sadly enough, there are only three people on the planet with stamina enough to make that journey to the final line. I think it is a journey that is worth it of course, or I wouldn't write the darn things. This one started and I knew it was a series of events belonging to a poem but didn't know how it was to end..truly. When I saw the school (most likely a Shia Imamate school) I knew that was it. I'm really in love with the Shia rhetoric contained in what is called 'The Nahj'ul Balagha' which is a collection of letters, sermons and sayings of the son in law and first cousin of the prophet Mohamed (SAW). He (Ali Mo'mineen, pbuh) is considered the 'father' of Arabic rhetorics....and boy..was he one. His words full of 'descriptive power' (the direct tranlation). I highly recommend it as a good read to understand the problems between the Sunni and Shia now.
Anyhows...thanks to both of you. Joe Green also read it and I think he really liked the salami, haha.
In some ways I see the same thing here as I see in Yiddish humour....afterall, they are all cousins you know :)
Oy!
What? Bigotry? In America? NO! Say it isn't so. But we love everybody. Bombs and bullits are our way of hugging people. We just want the world to be a happy, peaceful, God of Abraham kind of place...
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