Brouhaha
Dubai
For Faten
The serried gloating clang,
The vile awkwardness
Of the hammering –
Nearby, at a distance – construct this
Mortgage of and in the ear…
Certainly, the wife’s not song-
Smitten by this brouhaha, and as
You might expect, she speaks her mind
And builds this fear, these
Concrete layers of fear…
There are no summery illusions here
(Blinder within gladness
And madder in the hat’s own bower)
For this and this and this is where
The moan of a woman’s most
Naked, native power
May come to make his sadness,
Whale-large with incompetence
As he is
At the hawk-sharp sibilance
Of these eyeless rocky serpents
Winding round the ear, making
That same dumb feature hear
The fat and burning heart
Of a grub or a louse.
I want to forge her happiness
In the verse of a different house.
Omar Sabbagh
Omar Sabbagh is a widely-published poet, writer, critic and, betimes, scholar. Among his books are Via Negativa: a parable of exile, a Beirut novella (and his first full-length fiction) published with Liquorice Fish Books in 2016; and To The Middle of Love, his fourth collection of poetry, published with Cinnamon Press in 2017. He was Visiting Assistant Professor at the American University of Beirut from 2011-13. He now teaches at the American University in Dubai (AUD).
