Kodak and other short poems from “Epicrisis” by Ashraf Fayadh

Kodak

Old photos no longer represent us

haven’t aged like us

haven’t dried out like our bodies

or gradually vanished like our minds

They  are only…. bleached out

like our memories, no longer reality

since time overtook them

 

E.R.

Being sleepy is not enough to fall asleep

nor is water enough to stay alive.

Dust is perfectly capable of keeping a secret

as long as it stays away from wind and miners!

 

 

People you could know

 

Man decided he wasn’t like all the other animals

so he called himself a human being.

He started to look for a good reason

to be like that

but somewhere… he lost his way

 

Messages left for jailed poet Ashraf Fayadh at presentation of “Epicrisis” in Rimini in November.

Biology

 

Man would not able to survive throughout all these Ages…

on the surface of a planet like Earth…

without using his mind, because

just inhaling oxygen

is not enough to survive !

 

How beautiful man is!

Though  his body is not covered with colored feathers!!

 

 

Urgent

Pluto demands guarantees (more serious ones) to accept human beings’ offer to place it back in the solar system. And the sun is silent!

 

Inside the sky

 

The room is filled with the fragrance of boredom,

my heart, a rotten book covered with a thick layer of dust,

the ashtray is too familiar

and thoughts grip the wall like exhausted flies.

An unemployed spider peeks out of sleepy trees,

some noises outside

and the cold lords it over the situation.

 

English translation by Pina Piccolo, from Sana Darghmouni’s Italian translation of the original Arabic poems.

 

Cover image: Painting to honor Ashraf Fayad made by attendees of “Epicrisis” presentation in Milan, October 2019.