Respecting Marx

Author(s): Iman Mersal and Khaled Mattawa

Source: The Kenyon Review , Spring, 2006, New Series, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Spring, 2006), p.
157
Published by: Kenyon College

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4338900

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 Iman Mersal

RESPECTING MARX

In front of bright storefronts

flourishing with women's panties
I cannot stop myself
from thinking of Marx.

Respecting Marx
is the only thing all those who loved me shared
and I have allowed them all-in varying degrees-
to claw the cotton dolls
hidden in my body.

Marx,
Marx,
I will never forgive him.

I DESCRIBE A MIGRAINE

I wanted to describe chronic migraines

as proof
that the chemical operations
in my large brain
are working in an orderly fashion.
I wanted to begin:
My hands are not enough to hold my head.
But I wrote:
A bullet from an unknown pistol tears through
a dark calm,
a great furor,
a throbbing,

157

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