Whispers of the River

My husband after the occupation I said to my husband— Be like a brother to me Let’s not wet our marriage bed with even one…

He stumbled between his fear and his fire I was slave but his mistress, lady His name, a tattoo of my pain His past, a…

Poetry Before the Occupation Your beckoning eyes guided me to my country bringing Berlin to the streets of Baghdad Before the womb expelled me you…

“He who walks ahead preserves his companion— he who knows the road preserves his companion.” — Epic of Gilgamesh My friends— who departed into the…

Elegy of the Black Earth (A Prophecy from Sumer to the Age of Oil) By Amal Al-Jubouri I — Tablets of Clay In the beginning…

Poetry by Amal Al-Jubouri, recited by the broadcaster Layla Al-Shaikhly My children, my lanterns, are asleep— here, beneath this earth. Not nine names etched upon…