Calligraphies VI

After disaster
(again) in her small skylit
sublet, N. simmers

lentils while she reads a long
book about Ibn Arabi.

In prison they made
chess pieces out of stale bread.
She taught the women

to play. Their first champion was
an apolitical thief.

                         *

Political grief,
apolitical despair,
or it’s vice versa –

either way, insomnia.
Rapping on the neighbours’ door,

three in the morning –
...