'Mirage

Nobody told me when I was born
that my life would be harder than my father's and son's lives.
Nobody told me when I was a child
that life was full of pits and tunnels and trackless labyrinths.
Nobody told me when I was a youth
that my homeland was not a homeland
and that my enemy and friend are aligned against me
and my lover would be as fickle as a chameleon.
Nobody, except Brecht, told me when I was a young man
that exiles are shoes,
and only Sartre told me
that political parties are religions,
and only Abu al-Atahiah told me that mankind is a curse.
And when I became an adult,
I did not tell myself: beware of tomorrow.'

--Hashem Tafiq (translated by Saadi A Simawe and Ralph Savarese) (via Open Democracy)

(Ismail ibn al-Qasim Abu al-Atahiah (CE 748-826), an ascetic poet, was born in Kufa, Iraq, and died in Bagdhad)

Trying to explain to someone who is not from this country what it means when Cheerios offers a free replica of a vintage "Lone Ranger" lunchbox tie-in to celebrate its sixtieth anniversary. (I leave out Tonto & the silver bullet stuff...) We take our myths very seriously here. Just don't ask me about Jesus.

02 24 04

When will i be able to return to my customary omphaloskepsis, cranking out poems like Cracker Jack prizes, & mildly decrying the awarding of treats to my rivals? I cannot sleep for seeing the faces of the untimely perished; daily i discover further inroads upon freedoms i took for granted; threats make the mullions rattle.

02 26 04

   "Christian Snuff Flick"

body swallowed up
people quote anything but
that the intelligentsia. protests tendency.
via Tom Tomorrow
An even if
the last daysThe
hazy tints of your Cajun cassette is that way.
The Myth Chance experiences,
but after hearing the intelligentsia. protests
tendency.

02 24 04