Leila
Farjami
Poet & Translator
Poetry
Excerpt from the poem, "Madness" originally published in Euphony,Winter 2023 Print issue
"The moon-ring stands still—
a wreath of silver magnolias.
It encircles the charcoal cosmic sea.
Madness seeps through pine roots
shivering in September gale.
The end is not beyond your reach
or my anchored body."
Leila Farjami
Excerpt from the poem, "We Survived" originally published in Nonconformist Magazine, online issue 2022
"We survived
to grind pomegranate seeds
for an Iranian new year’s dish,
to hear the permeating abyss
between the hours
without the din of sirens,
to touch a lover’s backside,
to bear witness
to all flattened hills,
neighborhoods erased from maps,
homes rubbled to ground
with the two fingers
of a little girl’s corpse
poked out
like a V."
Leila Farjami
Excerpt from the poem, "Caspian Sea" originally published in Postscript Magazine, issue 42-Arrival, 2022
"I remember her
yielding bed,
tangling kelp stalks,
brine, filling my mouth
the night
I said goodbye
before leaving for America,
as she swept refugee bodies
to her shoreline—
a sea of cold eulogy
and stone."
Leila Farjami