By Maged Zaher
PROMPT — Who am I today?
We are hit hard: death and illness and stuff. Now I am wallowing on aesthetics. Abstract art and pretentious video installations. I roll in my bed thinking of nobody in particular. There is the vegetarian food that I think matters. I am not hypocritical, I am morally bankrupt. However, I am sticking to the version of truth that goes as follow: whatever I know happened, or whatever I believe, is to have a place in these texts, everything else doesn’t. I know this approach — according to set theory — renders me less imaginative, and more Cartesian. But oh well, it saved me from certain types of sins, that I wouldn't be able to face the angels with.
Maged Zaher is an American poet, translator of poetry, novella-ist, and an occasional poetry professor. He is the author of six books, including a collaboration with Pam Brown and a translation of contemporary Egyptian poetry. Maged is the recipient of the 2013 Genius Award in Literature from The Stranger. He writes from Seattle, WA.