Ali Kakou 

by: Majid Naficy

        In Memory of Mohammad-Ali Pejman (1948-88) 


The house is safe
And I have hung the cage
From the window.
Why don’t you come back?

The canaries
Are still singing
In your sunny room,
And your mother is frying
Do-Piazeh-Aloo
In the kitchen.

I know you went
To find a safe house
For Ezzat and me.

I know you went
To see a stately girl comrade
Humming an Eshqi* ‘s line.

I have watered and fed
The canaries.
Your mother has set the table
And has opened the Hafez.*
Here come
The scent of Shiraz bitter oranges
And the sound of high-heeled shoes.

My dear Kakou!*
Where are you?
Why don’t you come back*?


        January 11, 2022    

*- Mirzadeh Eshqi, A revolutionary poet, playwright and journalist assassinated in 1924 in Tehran.
*- Iranians open the Divan of Hafez of Shiraz for fortune-telling.
*- Kakou in Shirazi dialect means “brother”.
*- In summer 1988, ordered by Khomeini, thousands of political prisoners were secretly killed and buried in the Cemetery of the Infidels in Tehran and other places.

 

https://iroon.com/irtn/blog/17941/ali-kakou/