Mustafa Al-Houd (Prepared Angela Kosta)
Moderator 
MUSTAFA AL-HOUD
THE DEPARTURE OF the QUAIL
From tribes that drank
the lips of their women
and thought it was coffee
And as I was when I drank
the silver of your eyes
The cities were writing their history
With rose water
I was
searching for you between two moons
One of them colors the candle
For last night's celebrations
And the other between my fingers
Waving in directions
Instilling them that history writes history
In the shadow of the ziggurats of your eyes
In this pile
I search for you
I dialogue with absence
So it bends
And I tell the cities your stories
So they bend
And the other moon
Pours silver for your processions
I know that singing
Is impossible for me
But the tribe before its departure
Gave me a lute
And taught me the songs of
Reproach
It is strange how the tribe domesticates absence for the quail
And tempts me
To travel.
Prepared Angela Kosta Executive Director of MIRIADE Magazine, Academic, journalist, writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, translator, promoter
