Broken Bird by Khalil Elayan

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