Cinema Poem by Mohammed Dib

The character, there on a Hollywood
plateau OK he looks a lot like me.
OK, he expresses his momentary joy:
he hasn't had to rehearse his role.

He has his real face for a mask.
No stage-fright. No trouble. Still,
says he, I enjoy myself like a jack.
I play the part, bet ten to one.

A black boy ten to twelve years old.
And I terrify people in silence
without the smallest knife in my hand.
Women see themselves already ravished.

I've taken on his features to survive.
And from me to the kid, spotlights
have furnished only wastelands.