The Thief and The Ugly
I wrote his poem in the common Arabic language as a gift from my heart and conscious to the Tunisian people, especially for the Poetry Event and Mourning Dinner, Sunday September 18, 2011 in the Arab American Cultural Center, Houston, Texas, along with other poems honoring the martyrs of the revolutions in Palestine, Egypt, Yemen, Libya and Syria.
The Thief and the Ugly
Birds of a feather flock together
They fooled her by the over-complement
They fooled him by calling him Zain Al-Abedeen (the best of men)
As she is no body but a low class; who is even ugly
And he is no body but the head of thieves
The hair dresser of Carthage was uncovered as a venomous snake
Her husband became “the best of escapers”
She came from painting faces and dyeing hair
He came from the dirty group of the corrupted military
The student of Dalila (a famous female thief) thought she was a ‘Saint’
The student of Al-Zaibaq (a famous thief) thought he was the ‘Caliph of all Believers’
She knows nothing but deceiving rich husbands
Even if she leaves the children missing their dads
He spent fifty years of his life living like a prince
Whereas most of the people are hungry and suffering
They, both, rob Tunisia the Green, so it became a desert
God responded to the oppressed by their (the ruler & wife) departure
Bad bread that can never be good
They did not read the history; even history is the best adviser
Their time was a time of theft and lies
Their men burned and kept the people apart
Al-Bouzeezi’s flame would look better on them
They are worse than Satan
They belong to a race that has no mercy, but knows well how to bark
If such people hijack the authority, go join the revolution!
After all, justice gives chances, but doesn’t neglect
I don’t understand how bad people think they can run away?
***
Poetry by: Tarif Youssef-Agha
Houston, Texas
September 2011
http://sites.google.com/site/tarifspoetry