from Here, Bullet

[amelia_petkova]

One of the most moving books of poetry that I have read. Even more so because what it speaks of is happening now, right at this very moment

A Soldier's Arabic
Brian Turner

This is a strange new kind of war where you learn
just as much as you are able to believe.
--Ernest Hemingway

The word for love, habib , is written from right
to left, starting where we would end it
and ending where we might begin.

Where we would end a war
another might take as a beginning,
or as an echo of history, recited again.

Speak the word for death, maut ,
and you will hear the cursives of the wind
driven into the veil of the unknown.

This is a language made of blood.
It is made of sand, and time.
To be spoken, it must be earned.