Damazine – Two Poems – Iman El Ashmawi

Two Poems
Iman El Ashmawi – United Arab Emirates

Her eyes

Her eyes are the color of the sea,
Of sapphires and exoticism,
Of liberation to every Arab.

But mine are only the color of ripe dates
Sustaining your Bedouin fathers,
Or of irrigated farmland waiting to be tilled.

Liberation

Liberation is the after-dinner mint of chaos,
The word you give when you’ve
Salted all the water
And sold all the oil,
The noun when all the
Verbs have failed.

Liberation is the opiate of the masses,
Broadcast at midnight in shades of
Night-vision goggle green.
Liberation is the mantra of lunatic tyrants,
Even the democratic ones.

In addition to writing poetry, Iman has also taught English and Social Studies at the high school and community college levels. She currently lives with her husband and four children in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, where she works for the Ministry of Higher Education as a professional development instructor for high school English teachers.