"Barrage" by Mohamed Khair-Eddine (1941-1995)

 

Mohamed Khair-Eddine 

horse

death

rogue

syrtes

under my nails

jackal of the race of great wickedness

God dies without a spark a log in his arms

between my skin and me

rises high in the vine

and the visages

one by one

all thick

lacquers are poured

all over the walls

a thousand prisons

lynching

casbahs unearthed by a hurricane

the eye is missing here

a stiff fist

I cling to nothing

and suddenly the worms

of childhood

creep of green silts

winds

I lie above

abrupt torrent

the lost rose

becomes tongue

then junk

hi hyena

I drink tonight the defended alcohols

fair word

unfair word

sit down

toads along my

spine

eyeglasses shatter as stars

shrapnel

like folk dances

ah this South between my stiff legs

this mouth expelled from my saliva

women thus climb the hurdles

electrons

butterflies

veins darkened without bearing

forgotten in some street

under a magician fresco

where to break is to abolish the laws

ignorance

retractile sea not

simply city without city

and man without man

shadow falling into long chaps

a ship is going to leave the port of my attachments

what a villain that one who talks about

setting

fire

to the black cat popular

for its intimate

and mysterious meow

i stop

be quiet

remember

imbecile

they prepare an ax for my language

they dethrone a king i crush his wealth

i am the black ox you are looking for

evaded from memories in rubble

and torture

whereas earth is no

more earth

stone

no more stone

grilled by the cherguis

swallowed

like dawn that makes your face shine

you

delirious woman

you

moaning beast

i

acrid standing in the thickness

of my entrails

reeling

chewing scrap

negative body

i devastate the rooms

they throw down the cargo of vices

sweat and heat

ah

purulent gaze

i sow

sow again

the waste these

fields

ancient swords

cannons

mosquitoes

cramps

throughout a flight of angry stars

the gentleman feeds on cabinets

he ends with an apostrophe

bangs in the depths of another gentleman

behind me

at the bottom of me

standing over me

a satyr escaped from a cold book apparently

wrings my neck

me

an ember

hi hyena

drink me all

dawn will break in one of my wrinkles

nothing to be done

they go back up

crabs

cylinders

fumes

dresses

give me your voice sir

I want to hear mine

a lightning

wreath

spiral that soon squeals

all the kids in hell

the

city

remorse

hyena give me your elastics

and let’s drink dawn

how double and fresh and slow dawn is

to your nostrils





*chergui: The east or southeast desert wind in Morocco.

[From the collection Soleil arachnide, Éditions du Seuil (1969)]