The Fishbowl

Well, I wouldn’t give a fuck about the New Year

But

A fat ass guy or a fat ass gal

The sort of fat cat who many have to get skinny to make room for

Had come, so fucking cocky, shoving the new year up my ass

Doing me rather badly

,

Of course,

The fat ass was more man than woman

Because,

He was wearing must    aches    and not    booo  bees

Wearing  must aches   or    having  booo  beees    makes no difference to me

What does,     is the fact of being able to be  fat ass

 ,

The fat cat pussymonger

Has

Swiped all the new years all the way out of me and you

And expects

That I

too,

Like him

Be happy go lucky for the coming of a new year

,

The whole devilish humongous mass of fat asses

In this no good bugger of a holiday

Fucked up my breath

,

Struggling for breath

or,
A soul-mate to share it with

I am

Peering into the tiny fishbowl,

Swimming with the fish

,

Like the fish    I yearn for air with my sucking lips     self kiss my self

,

My pulse beats      in my lips       like the fish

I kiss   and kiss    and kiss          the air only

,

The new year

Is

Getting

Itself

and me

In,

But

Where

Would it hand my lips to,

And my kisses,

Which slice into the teeny weeny fish bowls
.


HamSeresht, Iranian Gay Poet & Blogger 
Translated into English by Sina Gilani, Iranian Canadian Actor & Director 
The poem was published in Hamseresht’s blog, The Last Surviver of the Generation of Souldmates – his weblog was shut down by morality police in Iran in 2012 – the poet’s whereabouts is not known.

Original in Farsi

S/he || Abouzar Karimi

A thing,

That very thing,

Who’s shape isn’t exactly as foretold,

Must turn out not exactly as foretold.

For a thing to appear not in the shape as was foretold, you must
–listen carefully! think of all the things they haven’t mentioned and the shapes they haven’t mentioned–
mold all those not foretold into a desired shape not foretold.

That is what I did.

And they appeared in a shape not foretold
Shook off their own shape, took off into thin air
Shut their eyes and walked out of reach
And didn’t know –didn’t exactly know– what’s been lost

_

Abouzar Karimi
Aughust 29, 2022 Tehran
Translated by Saghi Ghahrama
Dec 24, 2022 Toronto