My Broken Dream

Iraq is not just a name or a piece of land, nor is it a map of the oldest

civilization or a country with a flag and national anthem: it is not a

land of one faith and one race. Iraq is my inner soul, which has kept me

working all these years, and which shares a dream with its people

to build the country with a free and progressive vision.

No lights out at Al-Shaheed Monument;

No butterflies around Abu Nawas’s statue,

Nor drunken men on its street.

No flute for the Marshlands’ sparrow,

Only silence when I remember your name.

Is that my inner soul? Is that you?

How can your name be a mirror to a mentality of sectarianism and

revenge? How can it reflect ethnic cleansing, tribal flags and values,

To a land of depression and poverty?

If your dreams look like that… then your dreams can no longer be mine.

Dia Azzawi

London. 28 October 2016