1
from deep inside a human propels another human
into the world
herself
with a breath perhaps a cry she pushes out
brown sacrifices for the slab of history
she beats herself over and over again
because it’s the only thing she can do
she takes trains and crosses this white continent
searching for her genes in city walls
mining reburied trenches
or a golden wolf to lose herself in
2
on n’écrit pas parce que on veut
rather in order to proof our وجود
to mark the fact we survived
dit is een archief
-remnants of lives that worked underground at night
worked while the rest made love
dreamed on spotless white sheets
on soft down pillows bathed in dirt-lit cities-
a living archive of moths
sinners
illiterates
the coal-faced
inventors
infidels
sun worshippers
saints
3
we return to our blossom beds
make love with violent tenderness
with calloused hands demons asthmatic lungs
we stop nailing our guttural sounds
to our tongues
the soft أ alef became the hard A of chaff
the wheat must be separated from the chaff
the ك qaf is a complete cosmos of everything
كل كامل
your liver has دائماً been a bat
your bones carry you until your longing stops
your mind wants to grow extinct crops
anything to feed the body
to no longer have to ask
it actually wants to know emptiness
كافي كون
and
and
and
our mothers will stop bleaching their skin
4
in winter I drink wormwood in my tea
polish my glittering scales
keep my claws sharp and don’t retract them
I write our names on the body
just in case
genocide thrives on systems
lists archives numbers
I build a necropolis for my friends
in an olive-leaf pattern
at the market, an old woman
with a walker grabs my hand
tells me about her new watch batteries
her cassava
on the edge a Dutch meadow
our fingers intertwine
you talk about the dog on the island
we laugh but our brown-black skin burns
because we remember
I’m looking for the golden wolf you once were
you cry because that boy is hidden
and you flee God’s gaze
I fall
and know that you will crucify me lovingly
existence: وجود
whole, completely: كل كامل
enough, universe: كون كافي
always: دائماً