The Massacre of Daraya

On Saturday August 25, 2012, the Damascus suburb town of Daraya joined the long list of the Assad regimes’ massacres in Syria. The counted victims, so far, are 320; many of them are children and women. They were killed by gunning down, slaughtering and axing, and then many of them were burned in order not to be identified. This town is located to the west of the capital and known by its famous farm products, especially the grapes, and I have some college friends who live in it as well as a lot of memories.

The Massacre of Daraya

By Tarif Youssef Agha

Oh Daraya, my heart today is bleeding for you

And my eye is as well

I still remember the good times I had with my friends visiting you

I still remember the good times we had gathering in your farms

God made you a neighbor to Damascus

It is hard to tell which one of you is more beautiful

Your beauty still lives in my eye

The sound of your watering creeks still lives in my ears

What will happen to those memories today?

And how can I get rid of the horrible images we saw today?

Here is a mom who hurried to shield her child

But the bullets of the cowards were faster than both

And over there, there are remains of innocent humans

The crime they committed was ‘having a mad dictator’

But, also, here is a female journalist who didn’t forget to polish her nails before coming to the massacre scene

She was trying to interview the dying victims, not recognizing that they were dying

What happened to the worlds’ conscious?

No one sees or hears anymore

Oh Daraya, the monsters made a feast of you

A feast where the human body parts were the food

Hyenas, after all, are not skillful but in hunting and preying

The butcher, as well, is not great but in using the knives

In spite of all the tanks covering your streets

In spite of the smell of death knocking at your door

Your jasmine fragrance is the one which won’t go

And your grape is the one which will stay shinning

Those who proudly slaughtered your infants today

Are those who will drink from the same cup tomorrow

If the crimes decided to hit you today

Crimes, usually, turn around and hit the criminals

And you, Persians, this is Daraya in case you don’t know

Its infants eat guns for formula

If you think that a massacre will scare it away

Think again as, even if the world surrenders, Daraya won’t

***

Tarif Youssef-Agha

An Expatriate Arab Syrian Writer & Poet

Member of the ‘Syrian Revolutionary Writers Assembly’

Friday August 28. 2012 (3 days after Daraya’s massacre)

Houston, Texas