To Self, With Cautions
by Mohamad Said Bazzi
(2019)
1 /
How many a time you did drift
In the empty terminals
Of solitude shifts
Peering out into the night
Silent distant
Street behind street
Refracted in the marred
And clawed glass, cleaved of light
Barricades of disengagement
When had it all commenced?
2 /
How many faces spoke to you
The language of numerals
And you spoke back
The language of estrangement
The blundering of utterance
All the while your heart regretting
A larger problem
The prohibition of brotherhood
Was it always larger than you
Could’ve grasped?
3 /
How is it
That it all had passed
Three, four lifetimes since
Your father still lived
When he wrestled for footing
Strived for fortune
Contemplated balance
Hoped many a household
Into life
Had it not merely been
Just a whim?
When your mother still kept
Stitched atonements in pouches
Sorceries of flavor
In the transplanted kitchens
Of a fading dominion
A transcendent age
A calling like no other
How is it
That it has since
Always been?