Majid Naficy: The Cypress of Abarkuh

This cypress tree boasts 
That it is much older
Than Cyrus the Great.

.

Once with my father
I sat in its shade.
We were coming from Isfahan
And wanted to go to Ferdows
From the desert.

.

I became an exile
My father, a forgetter
And Iran, an inferno.
Now I ask myself:
Will this cypress tree
Remain standing as before?

Author’s note: Ferdows is a city in Iran. The name means “paradise”.

Majid Naficy is the author of many books in Persian and in English including Father & Son published by Red Hen (2003).

Copyright 2021 Majid Naficy