The Conservation Law of Ballads By Mwaffaq Al-Hajjar Mwaffaq Al-Hajjar is a Syrian poet and engineer. This poem is from his book Poetic Entropy published when he was a refugee in Malaysia. The mailman in my town, I mean the town of my emigration as my hometown is not my hometown anymore, for towns have a habit of rowning in rivers made of people They move like a picnic boat passing years and ages never minding the dead nor the martyr. Towns never care about sadness in the poetry of those who left towns are like that, they only embrace those who survive! The mailman in my town the town of my emigration I mean, is an eccentric fellow, he knows that I am, a lonely man, that I sleep after dawn and that I love poetry in such a way. He still asks me, have you ever loved a lady? I reply; Who would love one of the lost men? “Lost women! Get out of the window and look, my dear sir, lovers are drawing lines on pavements, teaching poetry to the poor! Do you write – every day – in vain? Have you understood, the meaning, the purpose, and the essence? Anyhow, do you have any letters – to your people – that I can send? I laughed and said: No – nothing worth mentioning! “Have you written another poem? I laughed and said: No! No! I have no stamp nor a destination to send meaning to my people, but I have written about the land and about the details of breaking free from the myths of the clan. Nevertheless, I still need some time to eject all the death inside and paste together 21