'America, America'

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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

. . .
America:
let’s exchange gifts. Take your smuggled cigarettes
and give us potatoes.
Take James Bond’s golden pistol
and give us Marilyn Monroe’s giggle.
Take the heroin syringe under the tree
and give us vaccines.
Take your blueprints for model penitentiaries
and give us village homes. …

from 'America, America' by Saadi Youssef, Damascus, 20/8/1995 translated from the Arabic by Khaled Mattawa, New Internationallist (May 2010)