They asked me ‘what do you think about his Excellency the President?’

They asked me ‘what do you think about his Excellency the President?’

By Tarif Youssef Agha

They asked me ‘what do you think about his Excellency the President?’

I said ‘a gang boss’

They said ‘what about the Forever-Leader?’

I said: ‘a gang boss’

They said ‘how about the King, the Sultan and the Prince?’

I said ‘gang bosses’

Then they asked me ‘how did you judge them?’

I said ‘they always seize power without election’

And if they make one

They make it ‘not real’, just like a mirage

Or they direct it as a theater play is directed

They employ actors who are brought in to act

Clowns whom if you get to know them you will find

That every one of them is either a witness of falsity or a crook

Our rulers are something else, they are butchers

Their job description is “to cut necks”

They are all made from the same fabric, only their names are different

Every time a butcher leaves, we receive another one

But they are also thieves who rob the country

They are above all laws and no one dares to question them

They kill and steal without knowing that

Every day is bringing them closer to their end

It is a day all oppressors are promised to face

A day when the oppressed people march to them with spears

All the forts they built to protect themselves

That day, they won’t be worth a wing of a fly

***

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 30, 2014, Houston, Texas

http://sites.google.com/site/tarifspoetry