Poetry

Graham Holliday

By

Mohammad Forouzani

A Short Night Story

The breast, worn out by the heart

The heart in conflict with the lungs

The moon covered by clouds

The gamblers played pitch-and-toss

The owl hooted in disgust

No-one breathed words of loss

Gypsies roving around the pubs

Neither light, nor star

broke the dark in sky

Less than even minute of one

a sudden scream went on line

It was the girl in the pub

The blithe and cheerful lass

She was raped by ‘A’ lad

No one knew the new guy

There was then, silence ON

The whole place switched OFF

Shakespeare in Mourning

Shutting the doors

Pulling the curtains

Wearing black gloves,

I read the message to the world

‘She is dead’

my own child,

the loveliest one.

Cutting the phone off

Escaping the sun

Piano aside

Crying aloud

I read the message to the world

“My baby died”

I won’t survive,

no need for life.

Midnight passed

The owl sang

My heart banged

But still alive

I read the message to the world

“Life continues with her or no”

I have to live

“to be or not to be”!

Mohammad Forouzani

Mohammad Forouzani (Martin) is an assistant professor of English Language and Literature presently teaching at the University of Nizwa, Oman. He was born in 1964 in Tehran, Iran. He holds BA and MA degrees in English Literature and a PhD degree in TEFL. Forouzani started intensive reading of Philosophy and Persian literature in his early youth which led to his writing of poems, satires, and critiques on social and political issues. His first collection of Persian poems was published in 1997 under the title “Khaste-tar az Zaman” (More Tired than Time).

He has publications in the area of language teaching and a number of his poems have been published in an anthology ‘Voice of Monarch Butterflies: A Middle Eastern Anthology by Ten Poets from Ganges to Nile‘ (2016- Editor: Soodabeh Saeidnia). He is now working on two projects for publication: a dictionary of semantics and his complete collection of English poems.