Arden's Quadberry

ARTEMIS

Virtue rescinded
I would see what essence is
At the brink
Of an eye
The blue gate,
A sand wall and 30
Bodies: compost for the chenars
Between here and Sangrama
They had said
“Come here for the beauty
And the chinar trees”
But come too for a taste.

I must note that I cannot recall
And then again I do not know—
Four big chinar trees standing
In the middle of the lake
Blue under the shade of centuries,
Lapis for the eye and throat.

In the midst of the saffron fields
The place where Zoon was singing
Sona lank and Rupa lank
Which of the four will she cut, who
If any will she spare,
Paydar dreams the lake
Out of the dream of revolutionary dust
His mother a different blue than
Krishna’s veil at the lying gate.

The next day, 40 feed
The roots that will not wander
The blind eye at the Azadi Hotel


Blinks.

[At the Evin Crossroads: again from Naipaul: 05.12.05]



“…Now I thought especially of my mother and what she had done without being aware of these ideologies. For me she was the symbol of the real human being. She was loved by everyone. Anyone who knew her loved her. It was something very strange…All the time she was busy with them, helping them, although she was ill.

“I thought that ideologies are only a small part of our intellect which can help in life. The main source lies in our cultural way of thinking. And natural behavior of people like my mother. The revolution I worked for didn’t understand me as an intellectual or my mother as a person.”

Paydar, in Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul's Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted Peoples


KHALKALLI

He drools
His bib a sign of sooner days
Calling from under heaven’s gate

Plunder his belly for dried fruit
The ache of violence in pursuit
Of justice—a bearded dream

Laughing with the Imam
Insulting the gods of the inner root
His throne a lawn chair
Ratted nesting, nested to a pair
Of slippers.

Hangman
A child’s game
In the company of men
In the shade of the blue chenar trees
In the quiet of the serrated knife
At the Evin Crossroads—

Qom with me
Would you like cheese?
Fruit? Will you sit with me
And slice the nerve between
Head and root?

The old man shuffles
Party boy, glow worm
On the floor,
Devouring the flame,
Nursing the ayatollahs.

Send the babies to the front
Kiss them beneath Allah’s book
Water their footsteps
Knit your brows with the Imam.

Drool in your pants, old man
Sit in your lawn chair
Air to the throne
Under a dome that withers meat—

Winter at the blue Evin gate.

[AND THE REST: 05.12.05]

To wit, even as we speak:


Mullahs of Iran: "We don't stone to death, only hanging" [italics, Quad's]
Jan 11, 2005

Khalkhali, Hanging Mullah Judge

Iran's mullahs issued a fierce denial on Tuesday that it was executing criminals under the age of 18 or stoning people to death, dismissing as foreign propaganda reports that such punishments were continuing.

"In the Islamic republic, we do not see such things being carried out," judiciary spokesperson Jamal Karimi-Rad told reporters. [Quad: we do not see...]

"Bringing up the issues of stoning and the execution of under-18s comes from outside the country and is aimed at distorting the image of the Islamic republic," he said.

The spokesperson, however, did not rule out the possibility that such sentences were being issued by certain courts. However he said they were invariably quashed on appeal or by the Supreme Court - which has to approve all executions - and stressed "no such verdicts have been carried out."

No sentence of stoning has been carried out in Iran for more than a year, with the practice seeming to have been suspended since the end of 2002 following a direct order by the judiciary's head, and under pressure from the European Union. The EU has made human rights a part of its ongoing effort to engage Iran and negotiate closer trade ties.

In a recent case, the stoning verdict for an Iranian woman, identified as Hajieh Esmailvand, was stayed pending a decision by the pardons commission. The woman had been convicted of murdering her husband.

Human rights activists and diplomats have said that while Iran appears to have respected a moratorium on stoning, there have been cases of minors being executed.

Murder, armed robbery, rape, apostasy and serious drug trafficking are also punishable by hanging in Iran.

© Iranian.ws