my leprosarium

i remember the images of firdos square,

in baghdad,

in 2003,

a giant saddam,

tumbling,

head first,

into a crowd,

like greg louganis,

like a hood at the gallows,

i remember the ephemeral us flag,

the chain leash,

and exotic white marble,

i remember wanting to change the channel.

like the debris,

and unaligned,

perforated marble,

when renaming a metro station,

or vcr,

in a skip,

in that moment,

of severance,

beyond preservation,

or promise of ruin,

when history is defined,

by the intricacies,

of disfiguration,

just absent,

like a phantom limb.

and bleak,

like the facade,

of a multiplex,

in malaga,

in 1995,

the sterility,

monolithic,

and euthanising,

but glorious,

and un-apologeticly,

consumptive,

in a sentiment,

not unlike,

the cascading red flag,

of the reichstag,

reversing,

impertinent,

and blind.

and so equally,

with discomposure,

defacing the possessions,

of a ten year old,

ambivalently,

placed on a shelf,

amidst glass partitions,

uncovered in pairs,

and reclaimed by trauma,

i reconstruct a vision,

of certainty,

and peace time,

beyond banality,

and mediocrity,

to conceal,

fragility

by looting,

with confidence,

the conquered remnants,

of a displaced nostalgia,

like toppling statues,

in my leprosarium.