hey Mashhadi kids! small town people! immigrants! locals!hobos! scholars! sophisticates! psychotics! anorexics! gather around! once upon a time, under the blue sky, there was someone, there was no one we all got trapped in spiderwebs i am from Mashhad, from Shishsad and Sajjad, from Khatam and Lower East Side america 2.0, i am no passive aggressive, taking all giving nothing like a CEO i came to this side of ocean, i went back to the other side this side, that side, i ended up in the middle of ocean death to america i was kidding officer, everyone get along give up paradise walking from a small town to west town, my friend died in oil town rifles and bibles in suburbia, naked on the streets in California the Vatican, Jerusalem, Riaz, Rio, Vanak Square, Alabama, Boys Town atomic bomb we are all from different towns, from Mashhad and Afghanistan going radical in america, blowing yourself up, metaphorical freedom square, need a ride? just kidding don’t let them take you to nowhere-abad multi-culture overdose, globalophobia catch it catch it come’n catch it bro silly prank in the Isaeli land, cultural revolution in the KKK klan i played it too nice for the blue eyed people, i ended up stuck with taxi drivers micro-brew everything, patent your chromosomes fly business class on the presidential drones i am an Arab-Aryan, oil, gas and sweet tea whether you chug it up or spit it out, it’s all the same shit at the end without identity, hollow from inside, i am my soul is folded in half, like a paper bag, i was in love with you, i wanted you but you went down the stairs to the underworld i wish before i go under the earth, i understand the meaning of spring and autumn we are all from different towns, from Mashhad and Esfahan going radical in america, all the immigrants, illegal illegal freedom square, need a ride? just kidding don’t let them take you to nowhere-abad multi-culture overdose, globalophobia no no no no nobody is colorblind we are all from different towns, from Mashhad and Azerbaijan going radical everywhere we are, wherever the rightwing is putting up a wall freedom square, need a ride? just kidding don’t let them take you to nowhere-abad freedom square, freedom! freedom! get in the cab! freedom!

you are a perfect line‪,‬ i am scribble with lines you were erased and leaped away‪,‬ from this city saturated with death no it can‪’‬t be‪,‬ it can‪’‬t be without you‪…‬ poison of their judgments‪,‬ reached to the bones we didn‪’‬t say our goodbyes‪,‬ you faded away behind walls no it can‪’‬t be‪,‬ it can‪’‬t be without you‪…‬ many years have passed‪,‬ your name is lost in the ears getting used to your absence‪,‬ is the melancholia of town counting all the dots‪,‬ staring at the clouds searching and being lost‪,‬ on the streets‪,‬ on the pages no it can‪’‬t be‪,‬ it can‪’‬t be without you‪…‬ we put on your shoes and went up to the last stair ‪ ‬ you are the inner child‪,‬ we are rotten from inside one day you shall return‪,‬ from the depth of infinity we will reach your footsteps‪,‬ dot‪,‬ dot‪,‬ dot‪,‬ dot we will reach your footsteps‪,‬ dot dot‪ to the top of the page

here in this cold room, my burnt up dreams piled up in the corner and across, the empty box of color pencils, so innocently wasted away in this room, blunt february wind reached inside, from cracks of the window to the cozy friction between me and my illusions the roads to the beautiful city of fiction on my notebook and under the wheels of train of life, got pale, bitter, and real i remained and so did winter, and walls of this room and you, alluring stranger i remained and so did this keychain of naiveness too bad the lock disappeared in the depth of this concrete city [chorus]: don’t come with me lovely, don’t come with me, the closest stranger tangent to my aimless grey fingertips, i am not going far but traveling with my failures and isolation needs no companion the weight of this crossing must not sit on your glass shoulders don’t come with me, alluring stranger sky is stubbornly cloudy, but not snowing or raining sunrise and sunset disoriented in the wheels of daily routine one night i left the room for a stroll on the quiet streets counting the pavement blocks their distance from purpose of my steps at the end of a narrow alley, before the moon above you appeared like a simple and graceful accident i heard you, you heard me, my eyes, your eyes our names, our breaths, our breaths i remained and so did winter, and walls of this room and you, alluring stranger i remained and so did this keychain of naiveness too bad the lock disappeared in the depth of this concrete city [chorus]

once in a while, from the present tense, from intense night and days i take refuge to the imaginary past half of it fake and greasy, other half tastes like counterfeit booze while walking around aimlessly i am the child of analog age, old timey Iranian comedy skits i missed the taxi from Poonak square, to Four Square hood of Tehran that left me hanging and took you to the end imaginary geometry, bad physical education Arg square and Ahmadabad, up and down the main Mashhad mall original Mashhadi banana shake my accent flew away, my identity got diluted and dissolved [chorus]: ah, we hung around and got dull we finally left and detached, a perpetual nostalgia, a dizzy heart because of you ah, i want you sunshine face, desert heart, your hands like earth paintings your shoes like color pencils, in the grey streets, drawing sketches with every step sketches of your fading dreams, ah, i want you with all claws my moomoosh your voice better than a string quartet, your bottled up sobs like Dashti and Shoor music your deep sigh a white cloud, in the corner of dense sky of this town last night the miserable me with “rotten vagina” Pari went to have some fun to make a baby and such we were kids and grew old, fun plentiful in grams Pari finally slashed her wrist last night the miserable me, with the childhood playmate in the upside down taxi, our crumbled memories no one was on the road, the dark moments before the dawn one last kiss before the trip [chorus] rainbow is all around us, with seven shades of grey air saturated with question marks, all over the streets it started to rain, we got thirsty, water shut down, we got quiet electricity came back, we logged in, like turtles we crawled in the shell of the past, downloading our happiness i wish there was no electricity, no dams so we could take a swim in “Hamoon” and “Urumieh” lakes and lose ourselves in the imaginary tomorrow a kind of tomorrow that seems a thousand years away

insanity seeped through cracks of my skull voices in the bottom of well overspilled from my lips the shadows behind got stuck under the door total emptiness under the moon it was time, pipes clogged, plumber pumped, but nothing came out blood shot out from under the nails, tongue got crushed inside the book industrial stew, cement sun, we all drowned in Mashhadi coca cola wow what a dream, last night my stomach was empty i drew the world map on my bed, i peed myself [chorus]: crying of abandonment, crying of being in love they watch and we gamble, fuck this season of misery my yellow identity, your red wound nothing is our solution , but the constant line dealer and artist, lesbian and scientist, visa in hand and leaving home historical disease, stupid hashtags, kidneys for sale, human worship i didnt know poker but got mixed with the deck of cards made from bread of my hometown, driving the taxi, cigarette and peanuts driving in sunset, prison of traffic, your dense eyes, resting in the mirror enriched with sorrow, your silence mandatory wish i had what i takes, wish i had it in me to wipe all your pain with my breaths [chorus] my foundation is broken, my facade ill, my roots thirsty for a drop of water living like a dog in a storage room, this is the West, its people seem like toys laughters sound mournful, cries comedic, this is the West, its tales are made of plastic it’s been years since i saw you, my mind in exile of your memories your hands in the clouds, my feet trapped, between us is distance of Mashhad and moon free falling to the bottom of tomorrow burning of us, the insanity of us. [chorus]

i fell, i fell, out of breath, out of breath from the low, to the furthest from confusion, to bewilderment from a sound, to a moan from a tale, to a nightmare no one stood besides me but darkness, but darkness spinning, spinning around self, without god wind took the days and nights where to? where to? all the books, floating, on the sea our gaze got entangled wish it were a tight knot suspension, suspension pulsating of my crossing through the fundamental particles all of my foundation, crumbling to nothing the dull blade of truth, on my skin and bones this is my story, i laugh, i dance i laugh, i dance i laugh, i dance i spin, i spin, i spin, i spin…

in the cruel cold of this city that scares oxygen to my lungs from freezing i wander in dive bars alone in the golden reflection of glasses of poison besides the question marks hastily carved on by invisible fingers no face, no friend, no answer i see under the warm blanket of strangers buzzing and relentless vibration of music in the air i lend my sorrows and watch as alpha males with glasses in hand, throw their nets on the autumn girls [chorus] i am your man, unfinished and grappling with the world unfinished and grappling with the world, and in love with falling in love i am free, i am free, under red and golden glasses i am free, i am free like the frozen moths of this city in the midst of this competition, the nets get entangled and dissolve in the dark of surrounding walls and nightly gamble of love and hormones takes many casualties surrounded by laughters and faces reflected on objects i close my eyes slowly and begin to walk alone in the thick of these cold walls i’ve sold my net to the old fisherman of gypsy village long ago i’ve been just a spectator of these games for many seasons the extent of my obsessions’ circle, has long expanded beyond the radius of my testicles [chorus]

by Tom Musick I flew a whiskey bottle rocket to the moon I sailed a dead cat cross the Humboldt Park Lagoon I carried February halfway into June To wear this crown Here in this kingdom I can walk the streets unknown Among my subjects, unexalted and alone I’ve had to fall so low just to ascend this throne To wear this crown No usurpers staking claim to my prestige No barbarians sapping walls or laying siege Who’d want this empire anyway? Noblesse oblige To wear this crown I’ll love you til the wheels fall off the Lake Street El Until this pearly soul has shed this salty shell I’ll waltz your empty gown around the floor of Hell to wear this crown to wear this crown

the upside down home of your land what bricks, from what kiln have you built it with? in the sky reflected on your eyes what lies have you knitted? what lies have you sewed? what lies… they will feed you these questions in the interrogation room and demand answers a room located in a world that is seventy some light years away from borders of bigotry and ignorance and no bullet reaches even its orbit a world which its rotation in your head sometimes gets stuck between seconds of the clock and with your gaze at the night sky keeps spinning again draw dots on me and save me maybe with the vibration of your cells next to mine this out of breath sentence will once again return to the beginning of the page