Glass: A Journal of Poetry Volume One Issue Three
American and Iraqi Soldiers Unite in a Dance
It’s a sophisticated dance,
needing the finesse of a jeweler’s hands,
which cuts a diamond into
this and that shape at a future bride’s demands.
People’s fingers interlock in this ancient dance,
forming a circle as large as a farmer’s land,
while they move in collaboration to the melody and rhythm
of a tambourine, dumbek and bamboo flute.
I saw them on TV, they were celebrating in Kurdistan,
which is north of Iraq.
American and Iraqi soldiers, grouped side by side,
dressed in khaki, holding hands as if they were one family.