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Malek Owera

Commended, 2026 Tower Poetry Competition, 'A Riddle'

Elegy for the poet boy

Hama, Syria From youth, he has a thunderous appetite for the classics: al-Mutanabbi, al-Ma’arri, Abu Nuwas, ibn Shaddad, ‘We are a people who know no middle ground; for us, it is either the ultimate honour or the grave’ – al-Hamdani’s truest words rain on him like a charm ———————————— —— a plague of hail. The boy absorbs the aural beauty of Friday’s athan – eventually remembering this compels him to go and pray. He navigates fearful streets of expired concrete, Eternal Leader’s smile beating down on every..
beating down on every block, Scorns the masjid’s surveillant, armed to the teeth with pen and paper. The list of names looks longer than last week. The child savours every utterance of every prayer, the pinnacle of this ancient language. Divine poetry. After, chatterings and rumours escape restless mouths. Stormy proclamations about freedom and the Ikhwan. He is an apprentice of the Golden Age poets, so he knows the potential of words: To inspire, to create, to speak The truth. If the murmurs are true – if