tarek chemaly
three books
2009
\_Front page
\_Strata
read
\_getting the news
  from poems
\_Archewallogy
\_Jnune 7 – 2009
\_earlier writings
(2002/2003)
(| EN | FR |)
o-----////()/---[getting the news from poems]------(| Tarek Chemaly · 2009 |)------¬ contents
Exodus 2003

A holiday in Cuba

Leave everything behind and go on a trip,
You have endured a lot, you deserve a break,
The chance is open and it is for you to take,
It is a once in a lifetime deal, so don’t let it slip.

Fully paid holiday in a tropical island,
Generously offered by the government,
Miles away from the snows of Finland,
And the CIA will handle the arrangement.

In Guantanamo bay off the Miami shore,
They will reserve you the best confinement,
All with five-stars standards refinement,
And their hospitality will hit you to the core.

As a prisoner from Afghanistan,
Supposedly supporting the Taliban,
You were raised on the word of the Koran,
And you had to go along with the plan.

It was either that, or them killing your family,
For the life of your daughters begging mercifully,
But you are not considered a prisoner of war,
And they can’t apply the law of the opposite shore.

So you are not part of the Geneva convention,
And therefore do not deserve any affection,
Your children will not miss you back home,
As an insignificant being, you are the epitome.

Amnesty international tried and so did the Red Cross,
But the borders of the concentration camp could not cross,
You’re nothing but an peasant barely able to manipulate a gun,
But they thought you’re a dangerous terrorist, you son of a gun.

Handcuffed for a small taste of S and M,
Along with torture chambers to make you confess,
That you were the mastermind of all the mess,
Come on, a small revelation will please them.

Only a few miles away,
In the land of the US of A,
There is today an iron curtain,
And behind it nothing is certain.

It vaguely reminds you of the U.S.S.R.,
All what is missing is the red star,
If you want hope, or just a ray,
Forget it, this is now the U.S.S.A.
5

Tarek Chemaly, “A holiday in Cuba”, getting the news from poems (2009), p. 5.

Tarek Chemaly’s three books of 2009, published on 111101 with the author’s permission. getting the news from poems: layout Mike Awad. Archewallogy: design Farah Samman, cover Ashekman. Jnune 7 – 2009: with Rami El Khoury, Upstairs Publishing; photographs as credited on each page.