Mould Poem by Nassy Fesharaki

Mould

Then
-when I recall and many don't
Then
-when hard work was a part of us
-but no more
Then
-when a child of my age worked
-to learn and earn and become mature…

I remember seeing skin-bags
-framed on the wood
-with handles
-in the hands of the kids
-to blow the air
-and flames melted the metal
-to liquid to be moulded
-in hollow containers to give shape
-to the molten

He
-an Iraqi by birth
-a Kurd and an Armenian
-by blood
-runs a convenience store
-in Toronto

A Mesopotamian and Middle Eastern
-after years of the same
-is a molten
-casted and formed
-into the shape of the items
-he sells
-from the shelves of his shop
-angular as the cigarette box
-and ready to take form as condom

He
-a rehabilitated to a routine daily
-has lost hair and taste and…
-knows of the sun and the moon
-as the ghosts of what once knew…only!