{"id":626,"date":"2022-05-31T13:27:38","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T13:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/?p=626"},"modified":"2022-06-05T15:57:36","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T15:57:36","slug":"abadan-the-city-of-light-and-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/?p=626","title":{"rendered":"Abadan, the city of light and oil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the occasion of the collapse of a high rise in Abadan<\/strong>, where many were buried under the rubbles.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Underneath the surface of that hot, boiling earth,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

lies an ocean,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

black as a starless night,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

hot as the burning fire of a volcano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abadan, the city carved out of the sea,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the city of wealth and poverty,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the city of fighters and rescuers of our land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abadan, once the bread ad basket of Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oil refineries as tall as the Zagros heights,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ships coming to load,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ships coming to unload.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

**<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abadan, the city of oil rich has been in mourning<\/p>\n\n\n\n

beginning that dark day, when the flames<\/p>\n\n\n\n

rose and burnt the heart of a nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flames, ignited by a turbaned mullah<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and ambushed the people who were watching a film<\/p>\n\n\n\n

in a cinema nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abadan has been in mourning since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

**<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years came and went by,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The oil money dripped from their pockets,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

those who stole pennies from the basket of an old<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abadani woman and jammed it into their abayya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

** <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These days, calamity struck again,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and the city of oil and light, the city of music,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and tall refineries where the oil seeps<\/p>\n\n\n\n

from the womb of earth,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and turned into dollars, pounds, Euros and rials,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

is in mourning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

**<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The heart of Abadan broke, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

as a tall building, built by stealing pennies<\/p>\n\n\n\n

from an old woman, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

collapsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The debris hid the dreams<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of a mother who lost her three sons<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and the wives whose husbands disappeared into the <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ground zero of Abadan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The destroyer of their dreams<\/p>\n\n\n\n

fled the scene, pockets heavy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

***<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, how I mourn Abadan and its widows and <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the mothers of dead children, and the dead<\/p>\n\n\n\n

refineries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mourn the loss of hope and the loss of <\/p>\n\n\n\n

music, the southern music,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

once played on the streets day <\/p>\n\n\n\n

and night,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

as the playful dolphins watched from the surface<\/p>\n\n\n\n

of the deep, blue waters,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and the people had a big smile on their faces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays, a dust storm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

which often blows from the marshes nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

has covered the city of light and music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mourn Abadan, the loss of light and fire,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and hope.. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the occasion of the collapse of a high rise in Abadan, where many were buried under the rubbles. Underneath the surface of that hot, boiling earth, lies an ocean, black as a starless...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=626"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":636,"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626\/revisions\/636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rouhi-shafii.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}