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Oh, Happy Powerlessness!

By Soraya Qahwaji
Fall 2021 | Poetry

Come and visit me some time:

hell, circle nine, round four,

It’s cold here and nothing grows,

not even the weeds of remorse.

I used to have guests, you know,

before I sent them down the river.

Nobody told me that

when you kill the past,

you become a shadow.

Now that I have my freedom,

someone who used to belong somewhere

is using my toothbrush.

There is no room left in my house

for the gifts I didn’t give my sister.

I used to have children, you know,

before I harvested their innocence.

Do not begrudge me my twistedness,

it is my homage to goodness.

Even the devil cannot but praise God,

although he praises by defiling.

I’ve buried myself

where light cannot reach,

cast the key into the void,

but I’ll never be able

to extinguish the sun.

Soraya Qahwaji is a poet of whom nothing is known. Now let’s look at her poems.


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