Two Poems
Alireza Roshan was born in Tehran and now lives in Hamburg, Germany. The author of 10 books of poetry and fiction, he made his literary debut in 2011, posting one brief poem a day on the internet.
Tributes
from The Banned Babylon Sonnets of Petrarch
May Heaven’s brimstone rain down, reprobate,
upon your hair since sin is such a thrill—
you who ate acorns, drank the river’s swill,
then robbed the poor to be both rich and great!
Ghazal 5: of the Dead Boy
Every afternoon in Granada,
every afternoon, a boy dies.
Every afternoon, the water sits down
to speak with his friends.
A Little Flower
A little flower doesn’t know how beautiful she is
She has no such a concept
A little flower doesn’t even know her own name
Six Poems
Answers What others look for in the moon or the stars I look for in the rain between streetlamps
He Shuns Me
I’m shunned by my own husband, though I’ve done nothing shady.
He thinks of me as ancient. He relishes young ladies.