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      The Arms of Shadow

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      Arab Studies Quarterly
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            Main article text

            In the blanket of deep night

            I look upon a sickly moon

            Glimmering in a misty sky

            Shedding embers of scanty light

            Sleep is out of reach

            In a night time daydream

            I run free into the forest

            Into the twilight under the trees

            Squat down in a deep reverie

            Constant with the silence

            Exuding proud freedom

            Offered by my core

            I am insensible to all pain

            That is happening to me

            A feeling of light like levitation

            Such as occurs in dreams

            My soul sheds its weight

            In a melody and rhythm

            Of a purer, sunnier life

            I am elevated and impelled

            By the permanent, the infinite

            Into the absolute timeless

            In the cold hour before dawn

            Comes sultry disturbances

            Like burning gusts of wind

            Cutting a path in my quietude

            Like a falling, winding stream

            Raging in a torrent downhill

            I am still awake

            When day leaps into the sky

            The red rim of the sun rises

            Over shoulders of dark land

            Colours of waking earth returns

            As the shadows of my night melt

            My wonder drips

            To warm, comfortable beds

            Having a hot tasty meal

            By the cheeks of a red fire

            While the wind howls outside

            The rain tirling upon the roof

            There is a whirring in my mind

            As my wonder leaks and shifts

            To conscience thoughts on

            The poor and sickly

            The cold and hungry

            Biting fingers in the bitter blue

            No sooner I try to close my eyes

            My mind and body reels

            Forcing me to open them again

            Toss, turn, sit up and lie down

            The lightening dark dazzles me

            Into a dead heavy like lead

            In an instant, a dread lightness

            I cannot walk, I float

            Drift like a gossamer

            The ground is a cloud,

            The air a current, like a river

            Carrying me to and fro

            Transported on the breeze

            Twixt a castle of rude plenty

            And sombre, meagre hut

            My eyes are wide open

            To the pain of poverty

            I know its unnecessary

            My eyes are open

            I am wide awake

            It’s raining blood

            I am blown away, away

            On a cloud carried by the wind

            Into the reaching long arms

            Of a travesty of shadow.

            Copyright © Sher Chandley. All rights reserved

            NOTE: this poem appears in the Second Chapter of Sher Chandley’s poetry book – SOUL OF HUMANITY, which is dedicated to Palestine and its Martyrs.

            Photomontage by Liana M. Petranek

            Author and article information

            Journal
            10.13169/arabstudquar
            Arab Studies Quarterly
            ASQ
            Pluto Journals
            0271-3519
            2043-6920
            26 September 2024
            : 46
            : 3-4
            : 180-183
            Author notes

            Dedicated to Ghassan Kanafani, Palestinian revolutionary, intellectual, artist and literary figure assassinated by the Israeli Mossad in a car bomb in 1972.

            Article
            10.13169/arabstudquar.46.3-4.0180
            d94c5b7f-ddec-42f7-bbc9-778348e5c9d6
            © 2024, Sher Chandley

            This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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            Page count
            Pages: 4

            Social & Behavioral Sciences

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