ILHEM ISSAOUI

ILHEM ISSAOUI

CIMMERIAN THOUGHTS

and albeit the cimmerian thoughts

we hanker after

and the brumal evenings we adore

albeit all the darkened pens we write with

and the words we cherry-pick

albeit how gossamery is our credence in an aeonian bliss

we will

soar like merry,  merry swallows to perch on the first effloresced branches of the spring

a confabulated lie

that we chose to sadden ourselves

we worship the eldest and the youngest of all clays

and admire their sagacity

yet choose none of the two

and stay hanged, in between

out of fear that glee would

flee in a moment when we choose to live in the moment

thence, they fear us

thence, we fear ourselves

for being the scarecrows of all the seasons

we choose a room, a corner, a word, and silence

FOR US THE DUSK

FOR THE WORLD THE DAWN

for us the dusk, for the world the dawn

my devils, my white pale devils

that became acquainted with my fears and leaps of faith

and this conundrum called life

we have hearkened enough

from those closer than the jugular vein

for us the dusk, for the world the dawn

we have hearkened enough

of these talks

like knives, we have been swallowing

behind the doors, we hearkened to

in sotto voce uttered

or stentorian

they are the same

and the degree of the wound is the same

as if we are to them emptiness embodied

a farrago of in capabilities embodied

and our glory! our fame! is a jejune, jejune land

when shall we tergiversate these loathsome crudes?

when shall they cease to chaperon us?

their care is akin to the amarulence of hatred

for us the dusk, for the world the dawn

FORGET ME

Forget me in the darkness of sylvan lands

As a golem unwanted

I want to touch my gelid being

I want to scratch my being

Till all it says is a heinous ennui

And it ends by throwing its instrument, my moribund

Now they pity me!

Now they remembered to pity me when I reached the apogee of carelessness!

Nauseated by what I recount

Yet, I recount what was true

It was me

ILHEM ISSAOUI

ILHEM ISSAOUI is a 25-year-old Tunisian translator and poetry and short stories writer. Some of her poems and short stories have appeared both online and in print in magazines including Three line poetry, Salis Online Magazine, Mind Magazine, Mad Swirl Magazine, Jaffatelaqlam, Danse Macabre, About Place Journal…She is also the author of a collection of poems entitled Fragments of a Wounded Soul. She is an Academic researcher in the field of Suicidology at The Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Sousse and a member of Psycho-Trauma Tunisie, the first North African Association in the field of Trauma.