Ilhem Issaoui – Indivisible atoms

Issaoui profile LEP&W July2021

Download PDF Here

Live Encounters Poetry & Writing August 2021

Ilhem Issaoui is a Tunisian researcher, poet, and translator. She has been published in many countries including the US, the UK, Canada, and India in print and online. She is in the process of publishing her second poetry collection.


Indivisible atoms

my father tells the atoms
to divide and multiply
and when they do
and each one moves and migrates
he damns them; I am to blame
my mother prays that I am here to stay
their cracked feet absorb me
like cracked land absorbed my father
all the atoms have gone
and I, I change my age every evening
memory is the worst of all gifts
it deceives you like a friend
my father says the atoms never came back


© Ilhem Issaoui