Shitkilling

Arash Allahverdi

come
come and do drugs
bring the drugs and do it
drink
drink the water
as if semen drink the water

drink and piss
piss on the office ceramic tiles
don't tell your colleague you pissed
tell him this is orange juice
your colleague will cheer up
and say real friends share drinks
and there are consequences
but don't worry
tell lies
sleep
take lorazepam and sleep in the office
think of hips in your sleep
think of the capacities of hips

ponder
ponder and flee
flee into the streets and bazaars
climb onto the curb
stand there and sing
sing and say not
say not I know not singing
talk
and eschew the fellowship of the ignoble and the envious maligner
and be never doleful
and rub my compound elixir of lobster dregs and yogurt
and ergot fungi liquids
on your skin
on your penis
on your hands and hips
so their harm won't befall you
and thou shalt live
so you will harm not even an ant
rub
and bend over
shove your mouth into the ant's ear
and utter to him
there are eight paradises
and seven skies and four gates
where art thou now O ant?

the ant crawled into the hole amazed and mysterious
the four angels rushed towards you
towards you
to take hold of your four corners
if you don't believe in paradise
and take you to your father-in-law
and then        you will vaguely see
you will see the same ant is reclining next to your father-in-law
"son, if there is not paradise, why do you say there are eight paradises," your father-in-law says laughing

you yourself know you have done drugs
you go and read Marx and Benjamin and Blanchot

you feel like it'll kill you to go work again tomorrow
and your father-in-law doesn't know you did drugs
you will finally die in the office
you know it yourself
and Bahram knows this too
Ensieh knows this
Feo knows this
Ati knows this
And you understand these things
and you are afraid your jubilant king won't hear the story of your perishing

but God himself knows

you also know that God himself knows
and he knows that he himself knows
and he knows that the Lord brings thousands of likenesses

forth
and he himself knows that you
are not even one of these likenesses
and he himself knows that you
are only scum, only excrement
and you yourself know that in excrement
—and the excrement knows it itself—
there are a thousand secrets
not even one is in a thousand roses
and death to the nose
and death to the eye that just won't believe

and death to your childhood
and death to your adolescence and youth
he who has no babe must do school
he who has no money

must get accepted at public university
must not take up drugs and chicks
must become a respectable person
he knows these things
and he who has money
is no shithead to do school
and be an employee
and not have a non-cultured chick
and death to his nose
death to his eyes

death to his body
death to his penis
and such are the characteristics of the crowds

climb down from the curb

come and do drugs
come and sniff
and be warned that the nose is not just for dying
come and shit
and fix your eyes on your excrement
zoom in
gaze
and place your excrement on a gold plate
caress it

pick it up and put it on your head
imagine that you are bringing me a dowry
imagine that you are carrying yourself in your coffin
bring it
bring it so a thousand mysteries I will clarify for you
Tehran is hell

and this will be your fate
this neighborhood is hell
and this will be your fate

come and have sex
have sex
do drugs and have sex
get connected
accept
think
touch
rub
get warm
get wet
have sex

get squashed
get shit
get composed
get compressed
this is my most prisoned poem
this is my most poisoned poem
this is my most presumed poem

you are entering my Iranian poem
you are violating my Iranian poem
and this is my own fault
I am born of a slit
I have slit myself from before myself
and I slit everything
and every slit deserves a cock
deserves a cock

deserves a violation
deserves an entry
deserves an employer
and this
is what I deserve.

climb down from the curb hateful excrement
come let's go do drugs
come
God's guarding us
come


translated from the Persian by Alireza Taheri Araghi and Thade Correa