Sohrab Mosahebi
On the Third Day of Announcing COVID-19 Epidemic in Iran
We come to being by a droplet
We slide on the musical tenderness of existence
We go to nothingness by a particle
We are dependent on soap and water
Our vitality dependent on the presence of latex
Our morbidity dependent on the width of nanometer!
We turn to smoke, not as a message, but as a passage
We turn to smoke while smoking kills!
We’re doomed to rely on a little ascorbic acid
We are the naked body of David trapped in the stone
Nipples of Leda longing for the swan,
Venus’s arms with no hands
We are the artless outbreak of unalive beings holding an artful outplay!
The tragicomic of disinfection and alcohol
The epic of pandemic
And you are gone
Tumours escorting you
You can’t see here
Particles have learnt the art of devastating
But we still haven’t learnt the art of loving
White pus become white swan in Leda’s vulva
While we still cannot become divinity with our nobility
With a sight to the music of our existence we turn to smoke
But we still haven’t learnt inexistence
—Submitted on 03/22/2020
Sohrab Mosahebi is an English literature student in Iran. His poems in Persian have appeared in print and online in journals in Iran. His research focuses on English Romanticism.
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