THAT IS IF YOU ARE IN LOVE Poem by Maryam Hooleh

Lizards have fattened the school
My wretched ancestors the stove
Torn pieces of the calendar thrown in the oven
Maybe braised meat will make me more of a dog
to these ankles of the days I bite

The theatre is taken by the fog
I, by the night
The woman is taken by her husband
I, by wretched immortality

Speaking is forbidden for the wall
But no one speaks my tongue
to save me from speaking nonsense

(Perhaps they have committed English to me
Persian to Shakespeare!)

I sow the wheat
with little sickles for cells
I sickle your tongues
so you know
it is enough to listen to all I say
My Zeppelins have given me enough rides
And enough means a breeze that you don't know is passing by

Everything's like everything else
My grave means your life
And perhaps your grave, my life
To live means to be in love with someone
and to live with someone else
or else you will be a wandering ghost between shameless houses
You are neither immune from falling in love
nor from life!
You are simultaneously condemned to two beings
your love
and the lover who lost you in a card game