Coffee and Water

An oh-so-splendid poem from our very own
Literature from the Axis of Evil.

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Coffee and Water

Tarek Eltayeb of Sudan; trans. by Kareem James Abu-Zeid

A hundred times a day, he says,
"I'll have to return. Here, there is no mercy.
There, there is kindness and warmth and..."
Then he falls silent.

I ask him, "There?
Where is that?"
He points somewhere.
His face is expressionless,
and he does not say anything anymore.

I take his hand.
We go to a cafe
and sit down at a quiet corner table.
I order coffee for him
and water for me.

I speak to him in Arabic
and mix water into the coffee.
He is annoyed, "Are you crazy?"

He tries to remove the water
from the coffee.

He tries to.

He tries to get the water back
into the water.