IRAQ POEM: The Cemetery at Barzan

by Sam Jerome

[Note: Jerome was a member of the April 2010 CPT delegation to Iraq.]

The Cemetery at Barzan 

The Barzani: a clan, a people from Barzan;
Barzani: their leader, inciting rebellion against Saddam;
Saddam: the intolerant, hatred untamed;

He storms in and transports 10,000 of the clan
to the south,
to Baghdad.
And killed,
mass graves.
Anonymous,
unnamed.

But now, after years,
the graves are exhumed.
Brought north, to Kurdistan,
to their home: Barzani land.
A hilltop among hills.
At home, among mountains.

There’s an old Kurdish saying: “We’ve no friends,
but the mountains.”

And so now, after years,
they rest.

Among friends.