POST-OPERATIVE COMPLICATIONS FOLLOWING THE EXTRACTION OF MEMORY

. . .
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