UNTIL AN ODD SHOE Poem by Maryam Hooleh

No
I cannot
I cannot keep quiet
I am sentenced to this corner of the world
With its retarded shop windows
And trousers that squeeze
No! Don't touch me
I grow up as a curious cat
to look at my mother's ankles lasciviously
Dear leader!
How can I ever trust you?
You don't look at all like thermodynamics
Your mouth is filled with pellets
And black holes fall out of your groin

How can you ever be kind to me?
When your sons give up their lives to the promise of sex
and your daughters
are exiled to the bordellos of five continents

No! Don't touch me
I am afraid of the cockroach wings
their flappings commit the lavatory of some house to abandonment
These people
how brave of them to have you flying about in their sky

If only the children grew up

an odd shoe would ever be good enough for you