FETHI SASSI

 

I Will Be Alone

 

If I die,

Don’t tell anyone.

Just light all the stars or practice some crying ceremonies

As old Indians would do...

Then fill the clouds with incense and read my autobiography for the Ashes.

If I die,

Don’t disturb the dead.

Recite a surah from the sand’s talk

Then lay my body on the beach...

I’ll closely watch the sunset

And stay there until I decompose in the dust

Like a nest for all the birds.

Don’t worry! The gulls will finally reach their harbor

To feed on the smell of salt

And to write all my poems over the waves.

 

For No Reason

 

I fear death just like you do;

I’m afraid of God and the straight path.

I even sleep as early as the dead.

I hide my shadow under the pillow and unleash the lies

So that I can sleep bare naked...

But I was always thinking of something stupid,

Just like that, unintentionally and for no reason.

I was thinking of becoming a butterfly.

Yes… A butterfly, all at once; I fly unremittingly

 And then surely die

As I hug a pregnant rose that bloomed its feathers in a burning poem…

 

I SAW "ZORBA"

 

I saw "Zorba" yesterday night.

He was standing at the train station, waiting for something

And, worryingly, holding a newspaper in his hand

As if reading the latest news.

What did the new invaders do?

How did they build a cage for all the birds?

They are the living that digs up the dead’s tombs

And turns cities upside down.

He knows that they are not

In need for a brush to make this world an uglier place.

He was worried as he smelled the scent of death emanating from everywhere...

It was the newspaper’s smell

All over the train station...

 

My Palm Lines

 

I no longer have time to shout.

My palm lines looked like the following this morning:

I will die the day after tomorrow,

The world will forget my face, all my names

And I won’t find anyone to teach me, love.

I still wake up every night to the sound of "Pessoa" screaming in my ear:

"You silly! All love letters are stupid! "

I didn’t believe him for that I'm a middle-aged man…

 

FETHI SASSI

 

FETHI SASSI: He is a Tunisian poet. Born in 1.6.1962, Nabul, Tunisia. He is a writer of prose poetry, short poems and haiku. He is a translator of all his poems to English and for others great poets. Poetry Books: A Seed of Love (2010). I dream …. And I sign on birds the last words (2013). A sky for a strange bird (2016, Egypt). As lonely rose … one chair (March 2017, Egypt). I used to hang my face behind the door (April 2018). A new way for absence (April2019). Member of: -Tunisian Writers’ Union- Literature Club of Sousse