I
When the ant had told,
That December cold
Night, the grasshopper,
Who had spent his summer
Singing in the tree,
To go dance now that
He was hungry & free,
He didn’t show the hurt,
Because he was alert
To the pain
Of winter and language,
So he left the village.
II
When he, thirteen years
Later,
Came back as a baker
(Who worked in the day
And sang in the night)
He went to see the ant,
A blue guitar gift-wrapped -
In his hand.
© LazharBouazzi, TUNISIA

In Salammbô
The sun
Looked like a bowl
Of honey, today.
And the sea
Felt like a womb.
LazharBouazzi, Carthage, July 22, 2017

"where day is....a dragon of the sun"

i.

melody of a wild sky,
burnt to ash, dark
keeper, longing for
light.

ii.

you wish to please me
and i'm caught up in
your arms, i fall to
the dry dirt earth,
i reach up, stretch
wings of stone.

iii.

summer is creased
at the edges like a
white shirt, it borrows
its golds from the melting
sun, and my path follows
yours, i am the echo of
all your steps, we run

up the stone staircase
that beckons us, we
run along corridors
and unlock doors,
my lips breathe fire
like a dragon,
my wings stretch out,
fabulous and wild.

iv.

i wish to please you
with my fiery kiss,
kisses and smoke,
i smoulder trapped
forever in a moment,
the moment is you
and love is my heart
singing in tune with
yours beneath the pebble
sky.

"where day is....an opening door'

black lined eyes,
purple-red lips
cheeks of rose
and broken petals,

summer sings of
green feverish leaves,
of a hot sun, of my
longings.

twisting lizard
scales not skin
iron-like, unhinged
and re-hinged, threadbare,

cardboard sun, smartly
stitched like a brown bear,
woken from a trembling
night of crimson stars,

torn up paper, song
of love, hot bird,
sparrow at an angle.

"where night is....a violet bird stretching drowsy wings"

i.

night, strange bird of metal,
sinking like a sea whose tide
drifts out, down through the
sky, wild honey and flowerbeds
full of stars.

ii.

i dream of you, revealing
everything of me, i am nuts
and bolts, i am sweet and
sour, i carve my name
on your wrist where the blue
snake rests its head.

iii.

my breath is fire and flowers,
longing, a song forgotten in
the mist, crazy day, bitter and
sweet night, shadow steed of
a circular world.

iv.

kiss me, sweet love,
my skin aches for
your touch like a night
flower twisting petals
on the wind, in love
with your love.

v.

rise like a ghost and
sweep me away, the
burning dust of my
ribs, my very last kiss.

When

you

look
at
her

Stop

Searching
    

  For

    My


Eyes

"where night is...romeo at a window"

i.

black rock, gold
leaf edging a page.

ii.

night drowses its
engines dark alleys
and empty cans.

iii.

the night sinks back
like a technicolor
cartoon, blue-green,
it rolls like a film, it
sings of old love
in its fiery steels.

iv.

today i am juliet
waiting for romeo
i wait forever for
one kiss while the
sky calls out
love to the dreaming
cloud.

v.

romeo, oh, romeo,
and the night's
ghostly petals
unwind their
sweetness in the
tree-lined lanes
of the moon.