Look

Solmaz Sharif

It matters what you call a thing: Exquisite a lover called me.

Exquisite.

Whereas Well, if I were from your culture, living in this country,

said the man outside the 2004 Republican National

Convention, I would put up with that for this country;

Whereas I felt the need to clarify: You would put up with

TORTURE, you mean and he proclaimed: Yes;

Whereas what is your life;

Whereas years after they LOOK down from their jets

and declare my mother’s Abadan block PROBABLY

DESTROYED, we walked by the villas, the faces of

buildings torn off into dioramas, and recorded it on a

hand-held camcorder;

Whereas it could take as long as 16 seconds between

the trigger pulled in Las Vegas and the Hellfire missile

landing in Mazar-e-Sharif, after which they will ask

Did we hit a child? No. A dog. they will answer themselves;

Whereas the federal judge at the sentencing hearing said

I want to make sure I pronounce the defendant’s name

correctly;

Whereas this lover would pronounce my name and call me

Exquisite and lay the floor lamp across the floor,

softening even the light;

Whereas the lover made my heat rise, rise so that if heat

sensors were trained on me, they could read

my THERMAL SHADOW through the roof and through

the wardrobe;

Whereas you know we ran into like groups like mass executions.

w/ hands tied behind their backs. and everybody shot

in the head side by side. its not like seeing a dead body walking

to the grocery store here. its not like that. its iraq you know

its iraq. its kinda like acceptable to see that there and not – it

was kinda like seeing a dead dog or a dead cat lying – ;

Whereas I thought if he would LOOK at my exquisite face

or my father’s, he would reconsider;

Whereas You mean I should be disappeared because of my family

name? and he answered Yes. That’s exactly what I mean,

adding that his wife helped draft the PATRIOT Act;

Whereas the federal judge wanted to be sure he was

pronouncing the defendant’s name correctly and said he

had read all the exhibits, which included the letter I

wrote to cast the defendant in a loving light;

Whereas today we celebrate things like his transfer to a

detention centre closer to home;

Whereas his son has moved across the country;

Whereas I made nothing happen;

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is

your life? It is even a THERMAL SHADOW, it appears

so little, and then vanishes from the screen;

Whereas I cannot control my own heat and it can take

as long as 16 seconds between the trigger, the Hellfire

missile, and A dog, they will answer themselves;

Whereas A dog, they will say: Now, therefore,

Let it matter what we call a thing.

Let it be the exquisite face for at least 16 seconds.

Let me LOOK at you.

Let me LOOK at you in a light that takes years to get here.

Poetry Ireland Review Issue 121:

Edited by Eavan Boland

Eavan Boland's first issue as editor of Poetry Ireland Review aims to encourage a conversation about poetry which is 'noisy and fractious certainly ... but a conversation nevertheless that can be thrilling in its reach and commitment'. There are new poems from Thomas McCarthy, Jean Bleakney, Wendy Holborow, Paul Perry, Aifric Mac Aodha, and many others, while the issue also includes work from Brigit Pegeen Kelly, with an accompanying essay on the poet by Eavan Boland. Eavan Boland also offers an introduction to the work of poet Solmaz Sharif, while there are reviews of the latest books from Simon Armitage, Peter Sirr, Lo Kwa Mei-en, and Vona Groarke, among others. PIR 121 also includes Theo Dorgan's elegiac tribute to his friend John Montague – a canonical poet, in contrast to the emerging poets Susannah Dickey, Conor Cleary and Majella Kelly, who contribute new work and will also read for the Poetry Ireland Introductions series as part of ILFD 2017.