Poem by Iraqi poet `Abdul-Wahab Al-Bayyati:
Cities that sleep without dawn
I called on your name in its
streets, and darkness answered
I have asked the winds about
you while they moaned
in the heart of tranquility
I saw your face in mirrors and eyes
and in the glass of the windows
of faraway dawn
in postal cards.
Cities without dawn covered with ice
Spring birds have abandoned
their churches
For whom will they sing?
And the cafes have closed their doors
And for whom do you pray,
oh rusted heart
And the night has died
and the carriages
returned without horses,
covered with frost
and the coachmen were dead
Is this how years pass?
And how a heart is torn
with pain?
And we are from exile to exile
and from door to door
We wilt just as lilies
wilt in the ground
Poor we die, oh my moon
and we always miss our train