DAYS OF 1986
by KHALED MATTAWA
In the kitchen sink
mugs and plates appear
then crawl back
unseen to their rooms.
a red-haired widow
next door reads
palms and tea leaves
in a sunny chair,
foretells ambiguous
futures while her
window inhales
its bone-chilling breath.
An old man somewhere
in that house sings
out loud in a language
I can never place.
Chairs scrape the floors
of upstairs rooms.
And doors slamming—
punctuations
from unfinished sentences
spoken by the wind.
But loudest is the
radio silence, a vast
and claustrophobic hum,
a signal from a time
threatening
to never end.
THE FRECKLED FACE OF AN OLD LION
by KHALED MATTAWA
A picture taken in
Serengeti, a lifelong
wish now fulfilled,
an anniversary
of a marriage, or
a loved one’s death—
the joys shared,
the sorrows condoled.
Friendships like rooms
I walk past in a long,
dark corridor as if
with wax in my ears.
What I need to know
more than anything
has been muffled
and hidden.
It takes all the silence
in the world
for me to hear it,
all the light to see it.
And no matter
what I do or say,
it can’t see me
or hear me.
O you who are buried
under rubble,
we are the dead
and we
WHEN THE ONE WHO SHOT THE ARROW IS MY EYELID
by KHALED MATTAWA
After Umar Al-Farid
Why doesn’t
my tormentor
wait for me to
forgive them?
A fantasy.
But really, why
have I let go
of the pain
this torment has
caused me?
An amnesia that
bears no trace
of reward or victory.
And when I reach
myself pacing
snowy streets
or reclaiming
budding branches,
with what face do I
face myself?
A scab that has
forgotten its wound.
A cemetery
over-run with weeds.
Why does the force
of my life distress me?
Why won’t my life
at last dispossess me?
author pic here
Khaled Mattawa is author of five books of poetry, his most recent, Fugitive Atlas (Graywolf Press, 2020). He is also the author of Mahmoud Darwish: The Poet’s Art and His Nation, and How Long Have You Been with US: Essays on Poetry. He teaches at the University of Michigan and edits Michigan Quarterly Review.
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