The Farewell, Part IIBy Khashayar Mohammadi
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for Khusro Mohammadi
a blanket
of morning thoughts and snowlight white on white news comes of the death and I do nothing but think of filling the fruit bowl for visitors a city widowed in the bones of winter I don’t remember boarding the bus but it’s filled with bouquets of flowers and the boredom of all those holding them news comes of the death and I find a new room in my house new bookshelf new wallpaper was Red always this Red? news comes of the death and there’s sand on the streetcar again where does it come from? Ash to Ash Dust to Dust my thoughts caught in a grey sludge mote of dust mote of düst snow-motes fall off the chimney of ü düst now dust news comes of the death and I find a new corner in the room with death I’ve absorbed new vision news comes of the death and I sit silently wait for the visitors to arrive "God Gone Astray in the Flesh"By Khashayar Mohammadi
after Franz Fanon and Douglas R. Hofstadter
my tongue
twisting into my mother tongue entwined a new set of vowels for this chilly night of consonants shrill with friction like piss in toilet water past is lowly a place of pasture past is a dialect I no longer speak fluently and my present is hemorrhaging selves my body my tan my epidermal S.E.L.F. aching I wanna be on my knees hearing “[shut up and] suck it” and I’ll do both without moaning the tongue can explore much much the tip disappearing male for man male for tan male to be male the desire to arrive [at the khod become khod-a “god” in the flesh S.E.L.F.-aware] S.E.L.F. stands for: S.E.L.F.-Enlightened Life Force above each S.E.L.F. An endless ladder of S.E.L.(F./ves) (-enter THE TORTOISE with ACHILLES asymptotically approaching -ACHILLES: knock knock -TORTOISE: Qui est? -ACHILLES: man -TORTOISE: man who? -ACHILLES: the who-man! one pillar of the threefold path, Zarathustra’s Nietzsche travelling west come cover of dusk) and taking my eyes off the L.E.D. corona of texted nudes my witching hour sunspots supernova behind eyelids the psychedelia of self-theft self-loss Nebulous in its fragments fragmented in its piercing light oozing from eye sockets onto wrinkled foreheads “Mint in Mortar” I stare into mirrors that refuse to reflect till medication can herd thoughts into pasture leash all that intrudes till I’m my own mirror khod-a S.E.L.F.-reflective till I know clearly that I exist A Djinneology of RumiBy Khashayar Mohammadi
for Christina Baillie
“he knew that he was contending against a Deev, and he put forth all his strength, but the Deev was mightier than he, and overcame him, and crushed him under his hands.”
- Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, translated by Helen Zimmern Rumi says to leave behind all earthly possessions
to become Divaneh, to act like a Deev Deev from Da’eva through Avestan but Da’eva makes Devil through the indo-european connection neurodiversity fallen into predicament at the hands of etymology Divaneh now translated as crazy from old Swedish Krasa to crush, shatter jagged edges of a collective consciousness once prevalent now too sharp to fit into any rounded conversation but there’s a second etymology that says Deev through Deva Deva makes Divine Rumi says “Divaneh Sho” translated as “Become mad!” or is it to become Divine perhaps? to be touched transcendent gifted Deev now chiefly translated to Demon (through Greek Daemon) originally benevolent semi-holy dysphemised by history crazy when translated back to Persian becomes Majnun Possessed by a Djinn connected to Genius the Roman appropriation of Daemon e.g. Socrates had a Daemon Da Vinci had a Genius Djinns promised real by the Qur’an have become B-movie tropes now e.g. young girl moves to rural town her dorm room possessed by a Djinn a Djinn she can now carry like a venereal disease she can become Djinn-deh a “Prostitute” literally Djinn-giver but Majnun is synonymous with tragic obsession (Love) the Persian Romeo at the end of his wits driven to Poetry by love roaming the desert so long parents have given up hope Majnun possessed not functioning fragmented, but whole in eternal exile prone to ventriloquy {often called schizophrenia} wearing a thick layer of dusk as eye shadow and sailing the choppy waters of taxi window blinds staring at corporation names mowed into slanted, footlit grass staring out the window and into the mind the sheer effort of existence scratched onto the spine roaming the concrete deserts of indifference days dictated by pharmaceuticals now… ask me again about etymology: Deev <= Da’eva => Devil or Deev <= Deva => Divine Khashayar Mohammadi is a Toronto-based poet, writer, translator and photographer. He is the author of poetry chapbooks Moe’s Skin by ZED press (2018), and Dear Kestrel by knife | fork | book (2019). He is currently working on a full-length collaborative poetry manuscript with Toronto poet Terese Pierre, as well as a full-length poetry manuscript of his own.
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