SCENEs FOR A FILM ABOUT GENOCIDE

Syed Kabeer Hassan

I
after an airstrike,

a boy buries
an unrecognizable body,
thinking it
to be
his brother.

a boy in jazz blue,
thinking it to be
his nephew,

swaying fingers for hidden birthmarks,
both laugh

“they had the same limbs”

II

how could have
we let something like Karbala
happen if we
knew,

yazid
stopped water supply
from the seventh night

from a tent, a head is again
darting into an unfamiliar crowd,
mouthing the word
water
water
water

III

in a camp,

a woman keeps old newspapers,
closer than her bread
spreads it like a morning after funeral
on the field.

in two-year-old paper, a scorched school
OPENED FOR ADMISSION

in a newspaper, her daughter returning
with a violet bag
but not before
the bell
rings

IV

how silent are you
in your prayers
grinded below the mosque

our slippers still kept outside,

mine beside yours,
soft and
unstolen

Syed Kabeer Hassan is a poet, translator, and an essayist from Allahabad, India. His works have appeared or will appear in BRINK Literary, Mantis (Stanford), Kahf Magazine, MEARI, Brown History, amongst others. He also owns a multiplatform blog where he writes and curates under the name 'fleurentcue'.