This poem is taken from PN Review 283, Volume 51 Number 5, May - June 2025.

Poems

Cihad Hammy
War

On the table, I unfolded  
the pages of Macbeth.  

Ink glistening on a notebook.
Half-full glass of tea,
steam deserting,  

unrequitedly.
I stared at the jasmines,
odourless, before me.

The journalist reporting  
about my city live on TV  

is cut mid-sentence  
by the blackout.  

With my shoes on  
the wrong feet, elegantly,  

I pocket my keys,  
depart my apartment.  
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