POETRY

Legend has it that nothing of us

Remains except for a name

Really?  I doubt that too!

Yesterday, I opened my phone book

Looking for a friend’s number

When I came upon another friend’s name

That was needed no more.

I erased that dear name with my tears

since we had buried him a few days before.

Even in a pitiful phone book

No need for that name anymore!

Mahvash Shahegh
[Persian original]