Late Capitalism by Zena Agha
"Listen: if you are working because paper makes you, then fate has left your life flavourless."
#ReadPalestineWeek. Seven days of Palestinian poetry: day five.
Zena Agha is a Palestinian-Iraqi poet and writer from London. Objects from April and May, from which this poem was taken, is her first collection.
Late Capitalism
still young awake
hear the ocean
in this fugue state
I bend myself
listen to water
rushing then possessive
at Kilburn mosque
a man clarifies:
it is music.
A body always
disrupted in strange
beds. Crouch outside
those stars frighten,
a canopy of
jewelled eyes, unforgiving
blackness lingers
over cross roads
the way men still hold you
even though you're grown.
This house is filled and
full avocados,
mangoes, guavas draw
a papaya as big
as a new-born
from the freezer
reckless, run a lethal
blade through blood orange
and arcane the seeds
like tadpoles fish them
with a spoon, quarter
then quarter again
devour with jackfruit
for breakfast, the skins
a discarded snake
the pips, bullets.
Slow exoticism.
What of their delivery?
Listen: if you are working
because paper makes
you, then fate has left
your life flavourless.Now, I’m mindful that’s it’s a bit, erm, questionable to share a poem called Late Capitalism and then share links for you to potentially purchase things but hear me out!
It’s that time of the year when every company under the sun is making excessive and unnecessary consumption far too easy but that is not what I’m encouraging. I’m just all for supporting excellent books, necessary stories, independent publishing, and making it easier for people to find good examples of them. Basically, mind your pockets and do with the following information what you will!
It would be rude of me to share one of their titles and not mention that Hajar Press have currently got 30% off their books until the 15th December- you can find them here. A couple of personal recommendations: Experiments in Imagining Otherwise by Lola Olufemi and Seeing for Ourselves And Even Stranger Possibilities by Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan. Two Palestinian titles I haven’t read but love the sound of are Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies by Heba Hayek and The Stone House by Yara Hawari.
And because I so recently recommended the anthology, Daybreak in Gaza, I’ll also mention that Saqi Books currently have 50% off their titles…
River Spirit by Leila Aboulela and A Mouth Full of Salt by Reem Gaafar are two other Saqi Books titles I’d recommend. They’re excellent novels in their own right but if you've been wanting to read more Sudanese literature, these are two books I really appreciated.
Both publishers are also part of Publishers for Palestine, who have made a number of ebooks available for free this week. You can find those here.
Lastly, just in case you missed yesterday’s poem…
Until tomorrow,
Tasnim