You ask me why. I tell you that

[matsunosuperfan]

You ask me why. I tell you that

today I saw a man around
my own age, from Afghanistan, fleeing through
the orphan desert to Iran. He found himself
caught short on water, felt the rain

of too much light against his head and knew
with any luck, he should be dead
by sundown. “Forgive me, mother—”
patchwork scarf ballooned a tent

around his head to block the glare, he gave his last
words to the sand’s miasma:
“and if he can, let my brother pay
my debts, or if he cannot, humbly I ask

my friends—forgive them, for God’s sake.” I will never
scrape across the desert for a second chance,
will never know what makes a man
spend his last breaths begging,

except to notice every time
I cross the street, that something in me
wants to stop midstream and wait
for rain to find me falling.

This poem suffers from a lack of credibility
A man about to die of thirst in the desert doesn’t possess the sort of phlegmatic demeanour. Which tells me that there’s some symbolism afoot. Maybe there is, but the metaphor itself isn’t credible then.

The following lines are wonderful, though:

felt the rain
of too much light against his head

patchwork scarf ballooned a tent
around his head

---

“The sand’s miasma” is the weakest line in the poem IMO

Thank you for reading. The poem was inspired by a social media post, so the source material is actually very real. I think the young man was trying to enact a dignified end for himself hence the somewhat dramatized speechifying. But this was a mostly unsuccessful attempt to capture the energy of that moment. 

The lines you liked were also my favorite, and I cringe at the miasma :3 

Don't think I'll pick this one back up but it was a productive exercise and I appreciate the notes as always!