The Disembodied Soul

About the poem

This poem is about a 3 year old Syrian refugee from Kurdistan named Alan Kurdi (initially reported as Aylan Kurdi) who got killed in a boat accident while travelling from Kurdistan to Turkey. Alan, along with his brother Galib Kurdi, was found dead one morning in the coast of Turkey. The photograph of Alan lying dead on the beach, captured by the Turkish photojournalist Nilüfer Demir, went viral within a day and it created huge waves of rage against terrorism and civil war all over the world. And, to say, this particular photograph is the reason why I wrote this poem. 

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The Disembodied Soul

Dark and wild was the night

Oh so atrocious was the sight!

Where the Mediterranean meets the shore,

Lay the hapless child whom I adore.

The progeny of Kurdistan

Lay still on the wet sand.

So beautiful, looking like a work of Cezanne

Does he sleep, far away from his motherland.

What you needed was an asylum,

Away from the foul play of cannibalism.

But o sweet child, o Alan,

The sight of waves caressing you made us cry a gallon!

Laying cold on the coast of Turkey,

You are a poem of great ambiguity;

An innocent victim of apnea,

Sweet little boy, you are beautiful like a Dahlia!

Being so young and benevolent,

Won’t you forgive the unintelligent?

For they took your life at such a young age;

And the least let me tell you, we all live in a perilous birdcage!

Now you are safe in the arm of God

Where there is no visible façade.

Dear child, kneel down and pray

Never to be born again here, where even souls decay!

-Gopika CPB