The Political Corpse Poem by Hassan Najmi

The corpse about which we know nothing
The corpse, which came from the past and went ahead of us
The corpse, which we call for
is calling for us.
The corpse, which belongs to its maggots
and whose crows roam above our heads
The corpse in and between us
The one around which we sing chants,
raise flags and lower them
The corpse we befriend and from which we derive strength
We run away from it
We run away to it
It compels us to forget and teaches us to remember.
We murdered that corpse again today.
We want to survive, to be away from its shadow
We want to run away from every elegy
We want to yawn and sleep