Pin disappointment onto proverb
Prompted by failure proclaim
دقّ الماء ماء:
“Pelt, pummel, pound,
And pestle water;
Water persists—unchanged.”
The ancestral whip.
The crop marks the logic of idiom.
Pruning performs wisdom. Go.
Stand before the West
End of the cloister and bang
On stagnant water.
Hammer triplets at each of the four corners then
Once more in the center. The water remains,
But the monks recognize the music.
They will come for the fall.
They will come with arms.
Copyright © 2026 by Hamed Sinno. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 15, 2026, by the Academy of American Poets.
