Nasser Alsinan
A Smooth Stone Is an Attempt
Death is the most sane
constant. The sly man
walks below the door,
not through it.
When a smooth
stone grew in
my room, I asked it
to be more jagged
because a smooth stone
cannot break a mirror. Because inside
a mirror maze, every face
warps into another face
and death does not
discern grace
from grotesque. So I
chewed the smooth
stone in my mouth because
I am not
a sly man, I have
never seen a door,
I do not know
what to expect from sanity, and
I do not know
if the smooth stone will
ever grow again.
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Nasser Alsinan is from Qatif, Saudi Arabia. His work has been previously published in Barzakh and Bear Review. More of his writings can be found on his Twitter page @nasser_alsinan