Mullah, Neekmar, Madrassa, and Field
Poppy, just look at how you treat me.
You’ve gone and melted me again.
I will fall right through these cracks if I’m not careful.
I will suffer your consequences over and over. Boy, I started in the desert,
The only pretty thing around.
Then the Neekmar came to find me,
He cut me from the ground. I bled to make you happy,
Was crushed and brought to life,
The most potent ancient remedy,
Carved from beauty with a knife. I have names both Pink Chiffon and Malalai of Maiwand,
I am the bringer of sleep and dreams that forever may go on,
Gaze upon my body and ask why I exist,
I’m here because you brought me.
I’m here to grant a wish. I’m your poppy blossom lover,
I’m a part of you inside,
I can sweep away the darkest storm,
Give you solitude to hide. I can end your pain and madness,
And replace it with one need.
Find me when you want me.
I’ll be all yours to bleed. Poppy, now I’ve found you,
I have no second love,
I’ll bleed for you and then you too,
Can silence calling doves.This is the first of a series of 25 poems I am working on for a project. Too Busy to Cry from yesterday is #10. In Afghanistan the Neekmar is the man who scores the poppies to ensure the proper amount of opium is leaked out from the poppy bulb for maximum collection. He uses a three bladed knife like this. The white liquid that you see coming from the poppy in that picture is impure opium (likely 15-21%). If you don't want to know what the poem is actually about, then stop reading. I leave everyone to find their own meaning if they choose, but this one requires a lot of other knowledge about the culture of Afghanistan to work. The poem is on its face about the production of opium taking the one pretty thing in Afghanistan and turning it into a perverse version of itself. Opium is turned into heroin and sold, but there is no sale without a buyer, and so the buyer is complicit and Western society is partially to blame for this whole issue. But there are other images there, Pink Chiffon is one of the varieties of Papaver Somniferum (the opium poppy), but Malalai of Maiwand is an Afghan folk/war hero. While the Neekmar works in the field, the Mullah works in the Madrassa. And the madrassa is where children are trained into radical Islam to become extremists and terrorists. Again, the most beautiful and pure thing in Afghanistan is taken and turned into a disgusting semblance of itself. And Western society plays its part in making that happen.