Bottoms Up

By Palestinian Poet Rasha Mansour

Narrated by Anne Chatfield

In this country I can have a name, not a history.

In this country

The cat can meow.

The frog can croak.

The snake can hiss.

The donkey can bray.

I can be a giraffe without a sound!

In this country I can pray, but to the directions of the government. God is everywhere!

In this country,

I can dance:

Waltz

Tango

Samba

Salsa

Flamenco

Capoeira.

Birds may also dance from pain.

In this country,

I can be Guevara

Kafka

Mussolini

Lorca

Chopin.

Dreams have no sky.

In this country I can be Marilyn Monroe

Van Gogh

Cleopatra

Hemingway

Dalida

Virginia Woolf.

Democracy is to elect your own death.

In this country, only two ways to survive:

either on the edge of insanity

Or Bottoms up!

 

Publisher’s Note:

I received word from Palestinian Poet Rasha Mansour that after three months of struggling to recover from Covid-19,

she now feels strong enough to write her next poem “My Corona”.  Welcome back to health, Rasha. 

Please take care of yourself.   I look forward to publishing your “My Corona”. 

~ LeRoy Chatfield