SOUAD AL-MUBARAK AL-SABAHIngratitude
The child sucks at his mother’s breast,
Till he has had enough.
He reads by the light of her eyes,
Till he learns to read and write.
He steals from her purse
To buy a pack of cigarettes.
He walks over her lean bones,
Till he graduates from university.
When he becomes a man,
He sits in one of the elite cafés,
Putting one leg across the other,
And holds a press conference to say
That women have half a mind,
And half a religion.
Then he is applauded by the flies
And the café waiters. 