Mahdi Meshkatee is a UK-born, Iranian poet, author, and artist. His translation of the children’s novel Witch Wars by Sibéal Pounder has been published by Golazin Publication Company. His work has been published by a number of magazines, including October Hill Magazine, Nude Bruce Review, and Inscape Magazine. His writings are a continuity of attempts at decoding himself. Instagram: @Mahdimeshkatee Linkedin: Mahdi Meshkatee
I Missed a Key
The stains on the page are your tears.
(you haven’t shed them yet)
Last night in the great theater hall
The crowd gave me a huge standing ovation
An encomium I deserved after years of struggle
To be able to express myself. They cheered me on as I approached
The grand black piano at the center of stage,
spotlight on me without being afraid
To lose for the second time in my life, the first the time I committed
Suicide but it went wrong, and I stayed alive.
I began with a piece from Schubert, Romantic
Challenging and shattering the ways of the world.
Then I moved on to Beethoven, some were intoxicated enough
To dance seated, and then stand up to elevate their movements
Rising and falling inaccurately on notes high and low.
I registered the moment into my brain, imagined myself dancing along
Hands up, feet moving on the ground as I was taught
When I was only eighteen and my sister brought me a drink
And from there it only took two to make us jump to the dance floor
Bodies expressing themselves after years of being told
To be careful not to show much, to keep close, to always consider
The worst outcome possible, and grow concerned, conservative and cautious
So much so that liberty becomes a distant notion and not so palpable
As for you to reach your hand out and grasp it.
The music flows, crescendos and diminuendos, ends, dins rise, noise floats over
The people happy with who they were, and happier with who they are, now,
In illusion as to the divisible nature of time
That there exists a time past present future
As if Schubert died like Beethoven died like Mozart died like me
When my piano broke and my key was stuck
In the lock
And nobody came
Not even my mom
To open the door
I sat behind
Crying
For so long
until I was twenty-five
And dad came home
Groceries at hand and
Silently opened the door
To the same increment of time.
Sadness Shouldn’t Be Buried
Sadness shouldn’t be buried in a graveyard
It shouldn’t be buried next to the cashier
Who celebrated his 60th birthday as
A loving husband and papa.
It shouldn’t be buried next to the child
Who was drowned in a frozen lake
‘fore blowing a birthday cake.
It shouldn’t be buried next to the writer
Who was soon going to be published
And missed the right train.
Sadness should be felt, written about, cried over, lamented, reminisced, performed, lied, feigned, promised, maimed, mocked, longed, wanted, desired, haunted, gone, afloat,
in the air,
not in the
ground,
Where the dead lie.
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