I WILL

by Xebat Bradost

translated from the Kurdish by Sarwa Azeez

Advocates for justice for Iraq’s Yazidi community say much more needs to be done 10 years on to address the brutal genocide it experienced at the hands of Islamic State militants on August 3, 2014, and its aftermath. On August 3, 2014, Islamic State militants invaded Iraq’s Sinjar province brutally attacking, killing, displacing, and enslaving hundreds of thousands of Yazidis in their ancient homeland in the country’s north. Ten years on, more than 6,000 women and children remain captives of the Islamic State with nearly 2,800 still missing. Many of the displaced still live in camps which Iraq says will close. —VOA, August 4, 2023. Photo: Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Islamic State in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain, near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate, Aug. 11, 2014.

Keep walking 
towards the Zagros—
womb of the world,
find an oak tree there 
and rest my back against it.

I am weary of the desert's stuffy heat,
the weight of history's shadows—
stories of our mass killings,
our mass graves,
echoing through me.

I will rebuild the place 
where humans first met 
the peaceful face of God,
stretch my arms to the sun 
like those mountain mornings.

I will wear a white dress,
sit in front of a bonfire,
sing my holy Gathas
three times a day,
renew my vows 
to my wise Pir and my ancestors.

I will carry a sack full of plant seeds,
return to the Daitya River,
create streams from it
bury the seeds 
and rebuild my shattered life.

Xebat Bradost is a poet born and raised in Bashur, Iraqi Kurdistan. She writes in Kurdish, using both the Sorani and Kirmanji dialects. Xebat's work has been published in various local publications. She is the author of the poetry pamphlet A Hundred Coral Beads. Her poetry resonates with a deep sense of cultural identity and the pursuit of liberation.

Sarwa Azeez, a Kurdish poet, researcher, and translator, is a Fulbright alumna who earned her second master's in Creative Writing from Nebraska-Lincoln University. Her debut poetry pamphlet, "Remote," published in the UK by 4Word in 2019. Nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Sarwa's work graces numerous publications including Parentheses Journal, Writing for A Woman's Voice, The International Journal of Genocide Studies and Prevention, the other side of hope, Collateral, and more.

BLOOD ISLAND

by Sheikha A.

Mohammed Hajjar/Associated Press

''The [US-sponsored proposal for a] ceasefire would evolve into a permanent end to hostilities and the release of all hostages in a second phase. A final stage would see the launch of a major reconstruction effort.'' —The Guardian, June 12, 2024

This planet will become a museum;

the future nodes of our past karma

will live in corridors without walls, 

where displayed in liquid sunsets 

will be an imagined version of blood 

because it will no longer exist: extinct 

artefact impossible to save for relic. 

Humans will be dissolved vapour 

from a combustion that was meant 

to enforce power; and, neutralists 

chose to write words to write-off

histories. Our veins will be draped

like decorative tinsel over our future. 

The dominant climate being eternal 

outrage, and no one to alter the code 

to turn back time to halt the rockets 

in the skies. Ahlan wa Sahlan, we 

greeted ourselves into their homes, 

and then eviscerated. Ma’afi mushkela, 

we will now help rebuild it from scratch.

Sheikha A. is from Pakistan and United Arab Emirates. Her work appears in a variety of literary venues, both print and online, including several anthologies by different presses. Her poetry has been translated into Spanish, Vietnamese, Greek, Arabic, Polish, Italian, Albanian and Persian.