. . .Feeling the bonds of language
coming apart in my throat and loins,
I cease attending
to my sacred obligations:
barking, and the gnashing of teeth.
I confess!
I’ve been neglecting
my post-operative physiotherapy
following the extraction of memory.
I’ve even forgotten
the simplest way of collapsing
in exhaustion on the tile floor.
10.IV.1973
© 1973, Taha Muhammad Ali
From: Never Mind: Twenty Poems and a Story
© Translation: 2000, Ibis Editions
Translated by Peter Cole, Yahya Hijazi and Gabriel Levin
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