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Anonymous Song

By Fady Joudah

When the shooting began
Everyone ran to the trucks
Grabbed whatever their backs needed
And made for the trucks
Except K

And they begged him to get on
The ones who ran to the trucks
But he refused them all

Later they found him
On the road running
And howling and still
He refused them all
Since he knew
His legend would grow

Then sightings began
He was clothed or naked
Cooking or sleeping
Eating or drinking what
The others gave him

And their begging remained the same
The trucks going loaded
Then coming back empty the same
Until it was forgotten
When K had first lost his mind

Before the shooting started
Or much worse after

One thing for sure
K is real
Safe and sweet especially
Holding a baby to sleep
Or asking for a sip of your Fanta
Or calling out your name from where

You cannot see him 
Added: Wednesday, June 25, 2014  /  Excerpt from "The Earth in the Attic," (Yale University Press, 2008). Used by permission.
Fady Joudah

Fady Joudah is a Palestinian American physician, poet and translator. His works have received the Yale Series of Younger Poets, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Banipal translation prize, a PEN translation award, and the Griffin International prize. His most recent poetry collections are Alight and Textu, from Copper Canyon Press. Joudah was a featured poet at the 2010 Split This Rock Poetry Festival, held at the Bell Multicultural High School in March of 2010 in Washington, D. C.

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