AT THE BOTTOM OF THE CAGE Poem by Mona Kareem

You can love yourself
One-sidedly
But better to waste your days somewhere
Unmeshed from the world,
Searching for clear teeth, hooking
Your last flower between them
Then giving it a name.

Look a last time:
This darkness will not pass away with night's end.
You will only reach the bottom of the cage by skiing the abyss
You will not touch hope, nor
Will you be the only well in her desert.

Sprawl and stretch
Echt city cockroach
With kisses like fireworks,
As absolute as a last number in the world.

Look:
Christ is a policeman who hates pepper.
Pull out his tongue,
Swallow it, and I
Will hand you water.