**Poem**
by/ Nabilah Al-Sheikh
translated by Hatem Al-Shamea
Poem
Now I hold
The soul of the poem
Now I can grasp
In the surge of poetry
That rare essence
The poetry will pour forth
Without care
And I become a vast airport
For the seagulls to ascend from me
And descend into me
I will not defy
My stubborn self
Despite the sorrowful women
Friends from my school
My neighbor
The ancient Scheherazade
Those I long commanded
And now they have become my elders
And I their disciple
Despite the union of the sorrowful
And a cocoon like iron
Now I understand the secret of the fatwas
And the path of the newspaper
Now I comprehend
The letter more
The rose more
And I write my freedom
In poetry.
In Proof that I Am Not Dead – Yaseen Al-Bukali – trans. Hatem Al-Shamea
