Khaled Mattawa
Five POEMS
Psalm of Departure
Locusts wrap the sun in gauze,
the river swallows its banks.
No pleasure but seeing the no-
king crop here, the no-fields,
a petrified forest where twins were slain.
Someone will follow a bird.
The work of fire never ends:
Djinn build cities of mirage,
the poor stand waiting by the shore.
Signs made of stardust and spider
thread. Any way you measure it,
the difference will be a road.
Psalm Under Siege
Speak the body’s thrift, the blood
and breath sustained by a candle
flame, remembrances
encircle like moths. No seagulls
when fishermen return
empty-handed to Arwad.
Locust-ravaged Idlib’s fields,
the dry wells of Daraa. Candle
light or soul—What else to call
what remains alive in me, how
it shrinks like irises blinded
by death’s blazing noon.
Agadez Blues
No place, no money for the bed
Je dors dans la rue paid only the way—
Even God can’t see me here
Police take your money
quand tu de que n’pas d’argent—
even God can’t hear me here
Ils te palpent tout le corps pour verifier
palpent all your body—
Even God can’t save me here
I pay 1300 francs go to Libye
mais le chauffeur, il est parti—
Even God can’t help me here
Je n’ai plus rien pour manger
Je n’ai plus rein pour dormir—
Even God can’t find me here
Psalm Under Siege
Speak the jet fighter’s contrails,
speak the rumble of my pulse,
its screech and roar of barrel bombs.
A cesspool of sewer overflow
and a broken water main—a gleaming
lake haunting your thirst.
Reeds shoot up from its shores,
sununu hop in between, chirping
when the shellings pause.
Tripoli Days
If I sweep this floor,
hack this meat,
pluck these olives
until my palms bleed,
what outcome is postponed,
multiplied into my years?
Not just your labor,
your life is cheap too.
So you pray and pay. Yet,
what if there’s no place,
only harbors, no pillow
or window frame
only more space
for the sullen dream
to grow and digress?
Khaled Mattawa currently teaches in the graduate creative writing program at the University of Michigan. His latest book of poems is Tocqueville (New Issues, 2010). A MacArthur Fellow, he is the current editor of Michigan Quarterly Review.