Chicago | тнє ѕυℓтαη'ѕ ѕєαℓ

Translated by Khaled Rajeh

James Hennessey, Iowa, 1991. Source: artsy.net

Do any of you know that there is a missing flag on the IMU bridge? I am only a traveler here, but I think it’s only right that I point this out. After all, the presence of a flagpole suggests the non-existent flag was once intended to exist there. This will cause us all some puzzlement we can do without. Imagine the scenario: pedestrians cluster on the bridge, perplexed, unable to move toward their destination or retrace their steps, each of them doing what I’m doing, stopping to investigate the disappearance of the flag. Maybe they are lucky enough to see that the matter does not merit too much attention, being only a flag, no more than a symbol of the international diversity among students at the University of Iowa. But that is not enough for me. I have nothing to rush me to the other side of the bridge. My most valuable resource here is time and I delight in squandering it on things no one would pay any mind to. I am the only one, then, who will take on the case of this poor flag. But before I take any steps that might put me in an awkward situation, I imagine a conversation between myself and one of the administrators summoned upon my request.

Frida Kahlo, “The Suicide of Dorothy Hale”, 1938. Source: wikiart.org

for Stan Lee

In Which we Meet the Suicidal God

As silence booms in a dark room whose only light

is the dying kind radiating off a dying laptop,

Dave Daggert, a desolate, destitute young man,

just days from drowsing off at his own college graduation,

stirs what his dealer calls Dragon’s blood

into his glass of Jack Daniel’s and dry gin.

Soon, he thinks: my past-sins and would-be failures will

be flushed into the bin. Excusing his confusing of

toilets and trash cans, we must be patient with young,

desperate Dave for he knows not what lies in store for him.

Translated by Khaled Rajeh

Posted by тнє ѕυℓтαη’ѕ ѕєαℓ | ختم السلطان

Posted by тнє ѕυℓтαη’ѕ ѕєαℓ | ختم السلطان