tarek chemaly
three books
2009
\_Front page
\_Strata
read
\_getting the news
  from poems
\_Archewallogy
\_Jnune 7 – 2009
\_earlier writings
(2002/2003)
(| EN | FR |)
o-----////()/---[getting the news from poems]------(| Tarek Chemaly · 2009 |)------¬ contents
Exodus 2003

Déjà vu

Haven’t I written this one before?
Isn’t it all the same once more?
Now I look at blank screens and stare,
With not even my genius to declare.

The ideas invariably get repeated,
If I were you, I would feel cheated,
I would demand my money back,
And go buy with it a light snack.

Eternally standing still in a status quo,
With no way out and nowhere to go,
I never change, but never stay the same,
The only constant about me is my name.

I wish I could unblock my mind,
With so many things out there to find,
I wish I was not deaf, mute or blind,
I wish I could go back, erase, and rewind.

But even this one, is a repeat of a story told.
20

Tarek Chemaly, “Déjà vu”, getting the news from poems (2009), p. 20.

Tarek Chemaly’s three books of 2009, published on 111101 with the author’s permission. getting the news from poems: layout Mike Awad. Archewallogy: design Farah Samman, cover Ashekman. Jnune 7 – 2009: with Rami El Khoury, Upstairs Publishing; photographs as credited on each page.