Download PDF Here
14th Anniversary Edition, Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Seven Nov-Dec 2023.
Torrent, poems by Muhammed Al-Kafrawy.
Torrent
All these loads and you move lightly
You must be an angel
All these years are implanted in your body
Are you a wrestler or an animal?
All these illusions you nurture with inexhaustible patience.
How miserable and unhappy you are
All these laughs piled up in your chest
You wait for an opportunity to explode
So, the loads flow
And the years
And the delusions
And the blood.
Days
The days when rodents attacked us while we were sleeping
Our green limbs were growing so fast
Our feelings are voraciously nourished by the inspiration of nature
The smell of grass was nerve-wracking
It leaves us numb in the wilds
Spots of light that shaped our features were
Whispering the secrets of galaxies in our ears
The sweet songs that have been implanted in our consciences
Taught us to reconcile with defeats
The stupid stars that covered our dark nights
Left us feverish at the end of the evening
Green children who look like us are
descendants trampled by the hooves of years
We have nothing left to do but regurgitate a painful past
Engraved in our minds like an eternal scar
In the days when rodents used to have fun biting our limbs
While we were sleeping.
Rescue attempt
Tell me, for God’s sake
How many trucks have run over your dreams on the highways?
How many foolish parrots have scanned the floor with your dignity
just for entertainment?
How many feverish desires ravaged your body in the middle of the night?
Remember with me
How many stray clouds have betrayed you and rained on the heads of others
And left you alone and defenseless, dreaming of the smell of winter?
How many socks do you have in your worn-out closet?
How many weak roses have you picked from the garden of your days?
How many shadows did your arm cover as you stepped towards your stricken fate?
Tell me and do not be afraid
Have you ever breathed as freely as a yogi?
Do you know what pain really means?
Do you enjoy the laughter of children and their absurd games?
Tell the truth
Do you know what awaits you tomorrow?
Do you care at all about the passage of time or the persistence of days?
Are you awake?
Do you want more love?
Do you count the curses tattooed on your limbs?
All these years have slipped away from you
And you are confused…lonely…unhappy…heedless
Be honest with me and tell me
You are humiliated to the bone
Why do you want to save the world then?
© Muhammed Al-Kafrawy
Mohammed Al-Kafrawy is An Egyptian poet, born in 1978. He has been writing in cultural journalism and literary criticism since 1998. He has four collections of poetry: “A Pink Dream That Raises the Head” 2006, “Shortly After the Dead” 2018, and “A Suspicious Place” 2020, and a fourth collection entitled “scraping nothingness with his nails and giggling” is under print at the Egyptian General Book Authority.