A Joy Followed by Doom

Where’s the other half of that happy news?

That which vanished when the second half finally came.

Can the heart feel glad and sad at the same moment?

Or is it only our hearts that can do?

From the moment the beloved ones were taken captive,

They never saw the sunlight,

Nor their families.

After hope sailed far from our sea,

After mothers recited Al Fatiha verse for their lost sons,

Now, they are free from the black iron bars.

They can see the sunlight without a veil,

Embrace their families they had forgotten,

Becoming nothing but strangers.

Their lost memory, bruises and shock,

Show us that they were in a place apart from all the world—

Sitting in a narrow corner,

Where air couldn’t pass,

Nor ghosts inhabit.

We have captives too.

We free them while they run,

And they free ours while they limp.

They still remember their families,

But ours have forgotten their names!

Their families waited for them,

While ours were killed the same day their sons were freed.

Freedom and death for the same family—

Thrilled and grief-stricken at the same time!

A man was granted the great moment.

To go to see his wife and children,

But they had all been killed before he met them!

They couldn’t meet, just as the sun may never meet the moon!

To whom should that prisoner give the toy?

Should he place it on his daughter’s grave?

Or should he keep it in his hands?

Waiting for the moment that would never come—

To give the toy to his daughter?

They are free far from the prison,

Yet they return to live in it again.

Their homes become prisons,

Silent, missing the people who were there before.

A gray life that refuses colors,

Refuses happiness without following the tragedy,

As if they both were born to complete each other!