A
Modern Tanka by Ali Znaidi
Halloween party
is over.
Ants’ eyes glitter
through a punctured balloon.
—A used pumpkin.
Written 01/11/2014
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Monday, May 26, 2014
Worm in the Bookshop by Ali Znaidi
Worm in the Bookshop
There’s a worm in the bookshop over there.
She is creeping up the books searching for a lair.
She likes to hide because she doesn’t like to be used as a bait.
She is always hiding. That’s her inevitable fate.
There’s a worm in the bookshop down the street.
She is very cautious not to be trodden by the clients’ feet.
She is climbing the bookshelves searching for a refuge.
She is very astounded with all those books – tiny or huge.
There’s a worm in the bookshop next to the pub.
She is searching in the books for some hearty grub.
She is searching for nectar to quench her thirst
because for her knowledge always comes first.
Narratives will go with the wind and perish,
if writers don’t write and publishers don’t publish.
Books combat the oblivion of time’s rust;
either alive in a reader’s hand(s) or buried in a shelf’s dust.
There’s a worm in the bookshop in the city center.
She is hiding from the public glare— the eyes of the hunter.
There’s a worm in the bookshop. See! She’s devouring a book
because she likes to be considered as an intellectual (angry) kook.
Written 22 12 2013
Acned Discourse: An Experimental Short-short Story by Ali Znaidi
Acned Discourse: An Experimental Short-short Story by
Ali Znaidi
Acned Discourse
________________________________________________. ___________________!
________________________? ……/……/……/…/………/………/…. __________. & the
decapitated discourse still oozes from the blocked pores of the tongues.
Written 21 12 2012
Friday, April 18, 2014
Untitled: A Nano Story by Ali Znaidi
Untitled: A Nano Story by Ali Znaidi
The thick snow looks like mayonnaise. Swallowing the pedestrians’ feet,
it becomes a frigid cannibal. But, what a carnival!
26 02 2014
Euphoria: A Nano Story by Ali Znaidi
Euphoria: A Nano Story by Ali Znaidi
She would prefer not to plan splendid things because she is living in a
garden of marvels right now.
26 02 2014
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Tunisian Desert by Ali Znaidi
Tunisian Desert
Sand soaked
in sleek satin.
Touching it
resembles
kissing
the soft
cheek
of a blonde.
Kissing it—
a paradise
unraveled/
Satan
expelled.
Written 03 03 2013 Revised 23/09/2013
pastiche by Ali Znaidi
pastiche
Mud clings to stones.
Stones cling to mud.
—Eagerness for pastiche.
Written 10 10 2013 Revised 03 04 2014
Three Short Poems by Ali Znaidi
The Shape of
Inexistence
When
the night comes
existence
takes the shape
of
inexistence for those
who
have no home
but
the streets’ laps,
for
those who queue,
as usual,
waiting
for new sorrows,
& above all,
for
those whose morning
is
not yet to come.
Written
16 10 2013
3
feathers of a crow
shine through
the empty shot glass.
—A (jailed) triptych.
Written 25/10/2013
Platonic Forms
I loved the shadows
of candles in the dark,
& I suppose
this love still persists
but in platonic forms.
Written 25/10/2013
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Tip-of-the-tongue Phenomenon by Ali Znaidi
Tip-of-the-tongue Phenomenon
You think it’s sugar at the tip
of the tongue. I agree.
Sugar sketching cupcakes on the
skyscape.
A mirage yielding real water.
Asphyxiated aspirations
re-animated.
Inside my brain, broken images
spackled.
& dream tastes sweet,
though I’m still under the tip-of-the-tongue
phenomenon.
Written on 28 02 2013
Originally published in The Siren on 05 02 2014
Mother Nature by Ali Znaidi
Mother Nature
From time to time,
try to take off your shoes,
& let the hot sand
caress your bare feet.
Let them feel the touches
of the scorching grains.
Let the grains infiltrate
your veins, while you ponder.
Heal your weary psyche
w/ the sand’s aroma.
&, always remember that
Earth is too great to
let two little feet
tread on its GRANDEUR.
16 10 2013
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Untitled: A Nano Story by Ali Znaidi
Untitled: A Nano Story by Ali Znaidi
They celebrated their first date in a love motel. But they didn’t know
their sweat would ooze through the tabloids’ sheets by the sunrise.
26 02 2014
Untitled: A Nano Story by Ali Znaidi
Untitled: A Nano Story by Ali Znaidi
She fixed her glossy lipstick and aimed the beam at him. “He is not an
easy prey. I had to try something else,” she said as he didn’t react.
26 02 2014
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Paranoia: A Nano Story by Ali Znaidi
Paranoia: A Nano Story by Ali Znaidi
Paranoid about getting older, he grows a new mint plant every morning in
the garden of his decayed house.
10 02 2014
A Short Failed Marriage: A Nano Story by Ali Znaidi
A Short Failed
Marriage: A Nano Story by Ali Znaidi
She concealed her grief under a party hat & a glittering smile in
the dance floor of a nightclub.
10 02 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Steelwork by Ali Znaidi
Steelwork
Before landing on earth
Adam did not forget to steal steel
from hell.
He stole steel to forge bars and
fabricate fortified prisons’ doors.
He stole steel to make sharp
stainless swords.
He stole steel to create all kinds of
manacles.
Without stealing steel Cain couldn’t
kill Abel.
Without stealing steal
tales of tortures and stories of
slaughters couldn’t be written.
Without stealing steal
anthracite wouldn’t be extracted
from the underground
& skins couldn’t be grilled.
Without stealing steel
barbeques of grilled skins
couldn’t be prepared
to the delight of hungry
cannibals.
Without stealing steal
weapons of mass destruction
couldn’t see the light.
But the light in Adam’s heart made
him bring steel from heaven
to till soils,
plough fields,
& make swords to
break all kinds of manacles.
06 03 2012
Extinction by Ali Znaidi
Extinction
Another green tree
perishes—
I mean naked mountains
& plains.
Another music radio station
shuts up—
I mean a bird singing
on a bough
shot dead.
Another Juliet
perishes—
I mean a bird feeding
his lover
a venomous worm
enriched with
toxic pesticide.
23 04 2012
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
A Thesis by Ali Znaidi
A Thesis by Ali Znaidi
I am pretty much anti-lengthiness and wordiness in poetry. I have a penchant
for distilled and concise poems. But this does not mean straightforwardness
because a poem always requires a certain degree of density.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
100 Magazines=100 Candles
The 100 magazines & journals which have, to date (January 7, 2014),
published my poetry:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)