Eulogy for a Poet

By Cian Thomas Ennis

Photography by Elizabeth Hunt

“If I must die

Let it bring hope

Let it be a tale”

             - Refaat Alareer 

Flowers bloom beside where artists rest 

An irrigation system powered by their chest 

But this poet’s body acts as a signifier 

Of the cruelty capable of a violent occupier

Syphoning soldiers across blessed lands

Olives plucked by their ordained hands

Seeds sown are taken as a tithe 

By those whom never have wielded a scythe

To depose those reigning on thrones of flesh

The pen must revive an ancient Gilgamesh 

Yet poetry is abandoned in this vile spring 

For the poet and hope, are the selfsame thing 

Bloodied manuscripts lost to the night

Are found by a child and flown as a kite