My Work - Poetry

The Rat Race

I am tired..exhausted
There is fatigue in my feet
Deviation in my eyesight
And all my dreams are lost
Yet I continue to run ..non-stop
Moved by momentum
For there is not a glimpse of light
Calling my exhausted lost heart
I am tired, although I never thought
I could become exhausted
In the prime of my youth
And that the heart would become bored
With the words of books,
And the charm of maidens,
And a glass in which the bubbles dance,
And tune gushing out of the chest of a violin.
I have run dry
And the muses of my poetry have become tired
I used to dip out tunes of all kinds of metres
And now I can only carve a few letters
In the hardest of rocks.
I am tired and cannot make up my mind
Every little decision makes me dizzy
And exhausts my chest
And requires great effort
Have I turned dumb
I whose brain was a flame
Lighting my path instantly
In every direction
I am tired for my battle is the last one
For I am fighting a cunning windmill
I fight its treacherous ghosts
I battle against its mocking sounds
No wonder that I am losing this battle.
I am tired and so are the waterwheels of my soul
My greatest ambition has become to rest
For I am exhausted
And my body bed ridden
And all my whole being is deeply wounded
And all my parts are moaning
And sometimes crying.
I am tired..my strength has yielded
And I have divorced my hopes
For my feet have run
From early youth
And are still running
How many a time have I carried ladders
Broadwise, due to ignorance
And sailed the ship against the wind
Day and night
Night and day
Not a friend or a companion
Or a counsel on the long way
Has advised me : “Take it easy, slow down,
You have become old in your youth
Running day and night
Have mercy on yourself
You are in a long rat race
Against the rats of these sick times
A race against the impossible”
I am tired and my strength has been sapped
Yet I shall run and run
And some of my steps are still fast
Propelled by momentum
And feet addicted to the path of strife
Until the storms rip up my sails

Dubai, 1979