Sand Opera

Synopsis

Sand Opera Emerges From The Dizzying Position Of Being Named But Unheard As An Arab American, And Out Of The Parallel Sense Of Seeing Arabs Named And Silenced Since 9/11. Polyvocal Poems, Arias, And Redacted Text Speak For The Unheard. Metres Exposes Our Common Humanity, While Investigating The Dehumanizing Perils Of War And Its Lasting Effect On Our Culture-- Machine Generated Contents Note: I. Abu Ghraib Arias -- Blues Of Lane Mccotter -- (echo /ex/): In The Name Of God ... -- Searching The Koran (standard Operating Procedure) -- (echo /ex/): In The Beginning ... -- Blues Of Javal Davis -- (echo /ex/): Next Day ... -- Public Address/ghost Soldiers -- (echo /ex/): His Name Is G ... -- Blues Of Charles Graner -- (echo /ex/): On The Third Day ... -- Handling The Koran (standard Operating Procedure) -- (echo /ex/): First The Man ... -- Document Exploitation (standard Operating Procedure) -- (echo /ex/): Now These Are The Generations ... -- Blues Of Lynddie England -- (echo /ex/): Me ... -- Blues Of Ken Davis -- (echo /ex/): Now I Am What I Saw ... -- Muslim Burial (standard Operating Procedure) -- (echo /ex/): And It Came To Pass ... -- Blues Of Joe Darby -- (echo /ex/) -- Woman Mourning Son -- Recipe From The Abbasid -- Home Sweet Home -- Iraqi Curator's Powerpoint -- Black Site (exhibit Q) -- Asymmetries -- Salaam Epigrams -- War Stories -- Iii. Hung Lyres -- The New Theory: Not To Praise Too Much ... -- When The Bombs Fell, She Could Barely Raise ... -- You Mute You Without Openings ... -- Is The Ear ... -- In The Cell Of Else ... -- This Is The Air We Script To Lips ... -- I Had No Names To Blazon Their Tender ... -- She Asks, Is That Man Crying ... -- What Does It Mean, I Say -- Iv. Second Recitative -- Breathing Together -- Testimony (after Daniel Heyman) -- When I Was A Child, I Lived As A Child, I Said To My Dad -- Black Site (exhibit I) -- Love Potion #42 -- Saddam's Fingerprints -- Etruscan Cista Handle -- Black Site (exhibit M) -- Toast (for Nawal Nasrallah) -- Cell/(ph)one (a Simultaneity In Four Voices) -- V. Homefront/removes -- I Hear It, At Times, Even In The Wind -- Was Taken Was Rapidly ... -- What Consequence Is A Body -- Tried Hanging Myself ... -- I Was Planning My Lesson On Imagery ... -- Taken To Outside Court ... -- In The Wake Of -- I Suspended Upside ... -- You Look At Me / Looking At You -- So I Could Pass The Time ... -- As If, Somehow, I Were Responsible -- -- On The Flight Overseas ... -- I Did Not Know My .... Philip Metres. Includes Bibliographical References.