If Plato could dissect my body
he would find olive
dove and grapevine
If Nostradamus could predict
what would happen to me
he would know
I am flightless
A carried pigeon
brought like an entrée
through the streets
A squint eyed mummy
forced upwards
by domino arms
this is the fate of all
shepherds
who throw stones
If David could see my arm
held
together in a sling
he would tilt his head
without dancing
Without walking
I reach my destination
buried in a Goliath tomb among
broken birds
# # #
Khalil Elayan is a Senior Lecturer of English at Kennesaw State University, teaching mostly World and African American Literature. His other interests include finishing a book on heroes and spending time in nature on his farm in north Georgia. Khalil’s first poem “Sana’a Sunrise” https://www.tribes.org/web/2019/1/31/sanas-sunrise was recently published in A Gathering of the Tribes magazine, and one of his essays appears in the book Teachers as Avatars: English Studies in the Digital Age published by Hampton Press, Inc. He has also written two journalistic essays covering the Arab Spring.
Photo: Graphic Node