Laughing Blue - Adil Latefi

Maybe these words make no sense

Maybe they mean everything

Your embrace was

a flock of doves

eating from my hand

The waves have stripped off their effort

and put mine on

Like how life flows from your eyes

and my eyes lap it up

like how the ghost of poetry came falling down on me

from a window in the sky

your absence was

a thirsty glass

in your absence I was

light

drenched in dew

My sun is happy

when it sips its day from your spirit

Your absence is happy

when it slings a bridge

between the smoke of the poem

and its fire

Where are you

ghost of ink

drowned in the light of exile

or does home

still darken your soul?

Everyone for themselves

and God for everything

This loss has whitened my days

and broken the night

with the milk of freedom

My words, where does the meaning begin,

and where will it end

Letters that say everything

are lethal letters

I am a migrant bird

and love is my wings

if I see the sky tiring

I’ll tell her to rest

One ear is enough for you to hear the sea

one eye lets

your soul soak in the blue

one palm tree can

mix love and peace

in the glass of meaning

for the wind to drink

Let’s escape to love

let’s get out of the picture

let’s dangle our souls from the rope of imagining

let’s wash time, our time, in a smile

if you damage a poem

the wing of a dove will treat it

if poetry is damaged

life will die

Each time a poem escapes

it increases in wonder

---

Adil Latefi (born 1983) Morocco

Translated by Adham Smart

Source: Modern Poetry in Translation