a poem for Bush from Tehran

A POEM FOR BUSH
YOU SEE NO ONE,
YOU HEAR NO ONE

by Seyed Hossein Mostafavi Kashani
a twelve-year-old boy from Tehran

You are the president of America!
You are an important person.
So important TV shows you every night.
You hold the microphone and you talk important words,
so important even Satan listens with a gaping mouth.

Only the flies don't take you very seriously,
and while you talk they are busy with their usual work.
They search for dirty, stinking things
and they rub their hands together
while saliva drips from their mouths.

Flies don't have a president
but some of them are very important,
so important TV shows them every night.
They don't have a microphone,
and unlike you they are not all dressed up,
making speeches,
but with dirty hands and legs
they move on Afghani children's lips and eyes,
the same children on whom you drop bombs
and then send them food parcels.

How long has it been since you saw a fly?
How many years has it been since you read a poem?
Would you recognize the breeze if it passed you by?

Just think!
When you were a child, like all other children,
you saw a fresh rose whenever you looked in the mirror.
But now you see an important person
who will die one day even if he is
president of America.

If you were to ask your heart it would say
it doesn't want to beat in your breast
nd be the runway for all those planes
that bombard cities.

For God has created the heart only for love.
So have pity on your heart
even if you can't pity anyone else.
It is an apple that will burst one day
and suddenly you will find yourself
standing before the gate of paradise,
begging the shreds of your heart
from every person you killed.
But no one sees you, no one hears you.