A Song (Ghassan Zaqtan)

Today's poet, Ghassan Zaqtan, is a Palestinian and his poem, "A Song", seems to be about the continual state of war that that area of the world seems to be in. Either at war, or tensing for the next.

It's a short poem (perhaps the length of the cease-fire?) and despite its title I don't find it to be very musical. There is not a lot of lilt in these lines.

It seems to be just a breather - the length of time needed to roll and smoke a cigarette - but this poem doesn't seem to do much more. I don't know, it's fine, but without any specialness in the language or in the overall point, I can't get too enthused about it.

Favorite line: "The glory that has been evenly split / among everyone / into medals for the leaders / praise for rank and file / and pictures for the dead"