It was neither your poem
nor any one asian brides online else’s.
Fallen on its back,
the wretched shell-back turtle
was singing my poem,
and with each stanza a renewed rhythm:
Someone’s fallen upside down!
Someone’s stabbed in the back!
He looks over his head
where the wind is carrying your footsteps,
and the waves are washing away all traces of you.
Turtle is singing my poem,
singing with the refrain:
Help me back again.
(c)Mohammad Tolouei
translated by Farzaneh Doosti & Martin Turner