Two Poems from The Book of Interruptions
by Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi
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around the lake
in the wake of the mountain
(where Farhad was sent to dig)
in the valley where nomads boil the petals for colour
there is a new framing of the sky
the absent scaffold on the carved marble
nose-chipped bas-relief of kings
a pebble has crowned the mountain
and when faced with the howl
the mountain is impersonal
shrouded in fog
in address
in city
in bludgeon
in flight
III
I can no longer afford humour
a spear knocks at my caged heart and the rattles awaken a primal fear.
a marble floor, a marble bust, all the negative space potent within rock.
mandibles in an oyster of sunlight within the sunflower. this sap.
there are things I can’t do with words.
there are words that are flexed too far off the body.
clouds make way for the Alborz mountains to crack.
revealing millennia.
the sun
a temperament of the great flood.
the sun
makes new
the speech
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Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi (they/them) is a queer, Iranian-born, Toronto-based poet, writer, and translator. They are the winner of the 2021 Vallum Poetry Award and the author of nine chapbooks of poetry. The Book of Interruptions is their fifth poetry book.
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