Eternal Life

As time passes

I get closer to you.

More similar,

You live in me.

With my eyes, you stare.

With my lips, you smile.

With my feet it’s as if you walk, aimlessly.

I feellike a ghost in the streets,

In a city where I do not speak to anyone for days.

With my tongue,my anxious tongue,

You spell freedom.

Only I

Change the words that you speak.

With my hands you fold the blankets the same as yours.

You curse the unwashed smelly dishes sitting in the sink

With words that are the same as yours.

You always avoid our morning habits

Sneaking out the back.

I was always awake.

You have sold doubt to the skirted women of this city.

You are scared of the wind’s breath in your body.

You give yourself to the hands of ablution

Yet your hands do not have the ability to worship in me.

I fold up the prayer rug.

I invite that you dance in the western style.

You grumble, “Dance?

Only Kurdish dance!”

Always, I ask myself in the mirror,

Why does whatever I’ve escaped from grow up in me again?

Why is it the farther I get from you,

The more I look like you?

Why can’t I get you out of myself?