The Story of the Village Chief and the Election
The Story of the Village Chief and the Election
By Tarif Yoyssef Agha
Once upon a time, there was a village
With a Chief who was breast-fed with Satan
He inherited the office from his father who wasn’t better than him
And who never followed any law or constitution
But, one day, the Chief decided to beatify his image, so he ordered
His supporters to fake an election which can improve his reputation
They started accepting applications for the office of the ‘Village Chief’
And they limited the candidates to seven
“Karakoz & Iwaz” (Syrian folks hand puppets) applied, three clowns
And also a female that was related to hyena
The applicants became six, all of them were
From the same material and stamp
The supporters (of the current Chief) were worried and held their breath
As their adored Chief hasn’t applied yet
They were afraid that he might be bored of being in that office
And that he might leave them without a return
But, after all, he didn’t disappointed them
And handed his application to the head of the jokers’ parliament
He begged his supporters not to celebrate by shooting guns into the air
So they were touched, and tears moved on their cheeks
More applicants came forward to be close to a complete two dozens
Applicants whom nobody knew anything about
But all of these were reduced to two, beside the current Chief
These two were humiliated big time on the Election Day
The current Chief won in a land slide
And his supporters celebrated his victory by the village fountain
But, after that, every thing went back to the same old habits
The Chief went back to practice his Satanic aggression as usual
And the ordinary people went back every evening to their barns
After spending their day feeding in the field
***
A Poem translation
(Can be shared without permission)
Tarif Youssef-Agha
An Expatriate Arab Syrian Writer & Poet
Member of the ‘Syrian Revolutionary Writers Assembly’
Friday May 9, 2014, Houston, Texas
http://sites.google.com/site/tarifspoetry