Tuesday, October 17
I WILL DIE ON WEDNESDAY!
The birds that cheered you up
The morning you hand-pick each morning from your window
The colours of that blouse tangling in the mirror
With the morning you crave!
The garden where we didn't hug
The planetary kiss in the building's dark staircase
Your mouth
What a mouth
Your reckless dress!
Your painful silence exhausted me
Your mirrors exhausted me
The tangling of the garden and the overgrown staircase
It exhausted me to call you
Your fingertips charred with henna exhausted me!
I am exhausted by the poem I will never complete!
(Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi,
translated from Arabic by Bryar Bajalan and Shook)