I sent this at the beginning of the Iraq War. Now that Bush is itching
to bomb Iran, it's even more timely.
The following poem was written by a twelve-year-old boy from Tehran, a
friend of the retired head of CU-Boulder's Creative Writing program.
Rumi lives...
A POEM FOR BUSH
YOU SEE NO ONE, YOU HEAR NO ONE
You are the president of America!
You are an important person.
So important TV shows you every night.
You hold the microphone
and you talk important words,
so important even Satan listens with a gaping mouth.
Only the flies don't take you very seriously,
and while you talk they are busy with their usual work.
They search for dirty, stinking things
and they rub their hands together while saliva drips from their mouths.
Flies don't have a president but some of them are very important,
so important TV shows them every night.
They don't have a microphone,
and unlike you they are not all dressed up, making speeches,
but with dirty hands and legs
they move on Afghani children's lips and eyes,
the same children on whom you drop bombs
and then send them food parcels.
How long has it been since you saw a fly?
How many years has it been since you read a poem?
Would you recognize the breeze if it passed you by?
Just think! When you were a child, like all other children,
you saw a fresh rose whenever you looked in the mirror.
But now you see an important person
who will die one day
even if he is president of America.
If you were to ask your heart
it would say it doesn't want to beat in your breast
and be the runway for all those planes that bombard cities.
For God has created the heart
only for love. So have pity on your heart
even if you can't pity anyone else.
It is an apple that will burst one day
and suddenly you will find yourself
standing before the gate of paradise,
begging the shreds of your heart
from every person you killed.
But no one sees you,
no one hears you.
Seyed Hossein Mostafavi Kashani
"Fool's gold exists because there is real gold." -Rumi
