You remember when we had no place of refuge

Even when they cast us to the waves

Roiling seas swallowed us, like Jonah

Under the stormy fathoms until

Shielded by the Almighty

And incarcerated in the whale

Leviathan by name, he lived

And was ejected on the desiccated shore

You call Iraq, which was Babylonia

Ionah the dove, son of Amittai

Maddened by salt, sun and prophecy