A Thousand Thorns

I didn't write this poem....

But there is a story behind it.  25 years ago (before the first Gulf War) I was working in Kuwait on a computer system at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  The system was sensitive in nature and one of the Kuwaiti programmers on the project was named Mohammed.  (Yes, I realize that there are a lot of Mohammeds there, but after all these years I can't recall his last name.)

This is his poem.  He had gone to school somewhere in the United States and liked to hone his English skills by writing English language poetry.  I have always loved this little verse he wrote:

She didn't die of a thousand thorns
As everyone supposes,
The thing that really killed her was
The simple lack of roses.

I don't know what ever happened to Mohammed.  I do know that prior to the first US invasion of Iraq (and the liberation of Kuwait), Sadaam Hussein boxed up the system, loaded it on trucks and moved it from Kuwait to Baghdad.  His cronies were making calls to some of the American contractors who had built the system offering them huge rewards if they could get the system up and running in Iraq.  As far as I know, he never found a taker.

But I suppose, that before he started calling the US, he would have looked for Mohammed first....  Whether he survived the war or not, I have no way of knowing.

If you are out there, Mohammed, and I didn't get your poem right, please accept my appologies.  And for those mis-guided souls who think all Muslims are cold blooded terrorists I would pose this question.  Do these sound like the words of a terrorist?