She passed,

 As a bracelet of wishes,

 On my soul’s wrist,

 My memory is a graying jeweler,

 He never dies,

 I laughed!

 The night was inhaling the earth,

 Like a crawling child!

 This lady is still living like a shiver

 in the nerves’ nodes,

 She almost made me sad!

 She almost made me

 Sad!!

 I for so long have been swallowing

 forgetfulness,

 And I am hurt by this daily nausea,

 By this difficult act of swallowing,

 Then I heal..

 The limping heart is walking for months

 over another woman..

 When the shiver was held at her picture,

 Its source was the remnants of a broken dream,

 And it wasn’t love!!

 I laugh whenever I notice her

 Leaping out of the picture’s background..

 Looking for a longing glimmer

 from our past..

 She started to

 dwindle..

 dwindle..

 dwindle..

 *   *   *   *

 She was sitting in that picture

 Like an angel falling out of

 A branch of light..

 It falls shyly

 in beauty and majesty.

 She almost made me sad!

 This picture she contemplates me in it,

 As a broken legged horse,

 In noise and chaos..

 In the humiliation of infatuation..

 and in erring!

 This picture ogles me,

 so that I remember the bluish Danube epoch..

 The beats of an illuminated language!

 This has been asking me to shed some tears,

 Some understanding, and some dreams

 I feel as if I have to negotiate with cunning….sadness!

 This picture complains that

 The cold in it has raided both lips.

 The metamorphosed crystal body

 made of heavens sap

was destroyed by two consecutive pregnancies!

 In this picture, my embrace is scratched..

 It reveals two breasts of chamomile,

 They were my sustenance!

 It reveals an abandoned abdomen,

 That lacked my waters..

 It became a swamp..

 Full of dwarfs and mud!

 Here she is crying..

 Shelling firewood wetted by forgetfulness,

 On a brazier that was once the warmth of my life

 She started to dwindle,

 Dwindle..

 Dwindle..

 Dwindle!

*   *   *   *

 She stood there like an arrow of fire

 Over the edge of my pain!

 Out of its picture comes out

 That poisonous perfection,

 Those chemical glances!

 How many years I lived

 Unable to bear this album!

 The feverish phobia of souvenir!

 How many years I lived

 Unable to bear names that resembled her..

 Or roads we used to trod secretly,

 traveling against the universe.

 Its fair skin engulfs my eyes

 Like gas,

 Leaves my artery

 Towards the second,

 The third..

 Towards forgotten miseries!

 She almost made me sad!

 I pretend to be preoccupied with some papers..

 These papers witnessed me,

 burying my longing child intentionally

 in routine work!

 I listen to a loud song,

 I escape my sadness in turmoil tunnels,

 So it loses me..

 I create chaos,

 I drink a Coke,

 I chew a gum,

 I make random balloons!

 I cut off the current from my memory,

 I cut off that crazy absurd light,

 And I let it

 Dwindle

 Dwindle

 Dwindle

*   *   *   *

 In a white envelope,

 Its curl of hair tumbling down

 So that it bring open my wound..

 It throws its darkness in my face..

 Screaming..

 “Take me!”

 She almost made me sad!

 Whenever I remember

 How many circles these tresses drew

 in my lap!

 What can this curl do?

 When all other tresses have left!

 This is an abomination..

 Negligence..

 Terror!

 Persisting in torture!

 This curl can’t last

 until it corrupts my hands’ morality,

 and tempts the eyelid’s girls!

 It will travel in forgetfulness basin,

 towards her!

 It will witness in the trip,

 something of my own humiliation history.

 Then, I will close my drawers,

 In a silence dissimilar to any other

 The women will dwindle..

 Dwindle..

 Dwindle..

 -----------------

Mohammed  Hasan Alwan

Translated by Khaled EL Asmar

15/12/09