The blush of the lips is pomegranate beads

Her lips bear the flavour of spikes, 

As they are swaying,

Pregnant,

With a thrill of bliss, 

Her shyness takes aroma 

While dipping in her atlas,

Gloom slowly passes

On the banks of slumber,

It carries wonders, 

Words fall asleep,

Perfumed by her straight hair, 

Swirling into the depths of my dreams,

She jumps startled, 

Her odour whirls me,

As hurricane,

Pulling out 

The accumulated lust on her Jeans,

I peel the caressing of my childhood, 

Drawing out her eyeliner,

Appealing for shelter to escape the power of her eyes, 

Her neck gasps, 

Breaking my pride

Sprinkled over the cheer of her treasures 

Ah of her drums!

My songs wave with their rhythm 

Smoldering on the tips of her forests

Her scent heavily rains into my lungs,

I breathe the screaming of her vessels, 

Sunken in a sad ocean, 

Surprisingly 

I chase up the birds of her chest, 

Being suddenly liberated, 

Shaking the ash of the feathers of infatuation,

And on my high walls

Laying the burdens of shyness, 

Growing, 

Contemplating my sobs,

How many a time I stared into her rivers, 

The hidden pearls in there call me

I open her scale in glee

As her fragrance pursues in surrender

A poem by Kareem Abdullah 

Translated by John Henry Smith
*****

Kareem Abdullah is an Iraqi poet and writer. He was born in Baghdad in 1962. Kareen Abdullah is the author of “Baghdad in Her New Dress” (2015 Book House). His name has appeared in many important Arabian literary magazines and he won Tajdeed Prose Poetry Prize in 2016. Kareem has eight poetry collections in Arabic and his poetry has been translated into many languages.