Autumn Poem by Habib Tengour

Grooves calcinated remains
Dwelling emptied of dreams
You exhausted the gaze of all the designated spaces
To die the path

Like the rope gone to earth
Like the gallop that has lost its cadence
Like the boldness of dawn

Where the feared halt — oblivion of first steps

How many lulls in our lives
Over there a vine dries in the white sun
Over there my body had shattered on the ground
So much desire in the well-loved lull

...
The days imagine the sand deserted
Parade





Love me, oh...
Pain, bodies toiling at the incidence of remorse
(How not to die for having bathed my heart in
your body)
Dream torn from the well-established fear

Oh love me
The signs fade away one after the other and lose themselves in silence

And you, unsettled, what do you expect from silence...





Offered myrrh
Scepter laid down to the day that rises naked
Trembling encounter

Our lives crossed to lose themselves forever
To weep over the place today, mutilated memory
The pain masters the words

You present yourself with a patched up story
A soul yellowed by time
What hope do you hold in the words gone awry

As evening closed in I heard the tears
And our lives looked at each other

For a long time the wound suspended like a reprimand
...





Building site
Long ago a man lost his hands
Freed from the embrace's whiteness

From early morning on the noise confounds all the signs
Wake-up is tough

An image persists that wants to dominate your life
Subdue the shadow of the song

You turn moved because the sun is already high





Marbled heights
You contemplate sunset at the close of a crisis
Mirror with no resonance
Destitution of effects
Your life collides with the other shore — your mortgaged soul

You say I didn't want that/my face
And you say Fate under the mask
A snatched promise

She
Worried
Looks at you and looks and looks

(Look at yourself!)

...

at the close of a crisis mirror with no resonance