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

Thirteen years later

Thirteen years later,
Living sadly ever after,
I found myself doing,
Something so boring.

Feeling full of emptiness,
Drowning in a total mess,
Everything is a wild guess,
Nothing more, nothing less,

Wearing a different shirt,
Wearing a different short,
Holding different glasses in my hand,
Lying on the same couch, unable to stand.

I was thinking of all these ideas,
Feeling let down by my own ideals,
I ran to find myself where I started,
In a closed circle, I feel so stranded.

Thirteen years have gone down the drain,
Thirteen years have gone in total vain,
Thirteen years to find myself on a Sunday,
Still stuck, still dreaming of getting away.

Will thirteen more years have to pass,
Before I feel like I am not an ass,
Before I get a taste of victory,
Before starting a different story.

Oh! Enough self-pity young man,
Just go for it, reach for the exit,
And if you can’t do it, no one can,
You’re the greatest, trust me, damn it!

Come on, go forward, go ahead,
Get these ideas out of your head,
Stop going from the sofa to the bed,
Stop being angry, seeing things in red.

I said, come on! You’re being too pathetic,
And to all those who think you’re a heretic,
Their religion is too tight, their god is too small,
They can only see the world while staring at a wall.

If you only knew how far you have gone,
If you only knew the great things you have done,
If I were to pick somebody, you would surely be the one,
You are as promising as the day break with the rising sun.
56

Tarek Chemaly, “Thirteen years later”, getting the news from poems (2009), p. 56.

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.