In the history of foreign occupations, American occupation of Iraq distinguishes itself by outward demand for "free speech and expression." The belief in abolition of former repression often brings about the censorship of any voice to the contrary. The new "freedom" comes with a user's manual: the "freedom of speech" may be used only to oppose the old regime while letting the occupant preserve his illusory position of an outsider.

If the first sentence were only the birth of the next one, setting it down on paper would not be so difficult. The reason for my avoidance is rather that it shuts the door to a number of other sentences, a moment earlier still possible. Possible, yet not known to me, and so, equally impossible. And yet, that first sentence -- each sentence, since each is first -- is the death of a next one. The first sentence reduces me to silence: whether or not I write it.

If I write a sentence, it is because I shrink from writing another one elsewhere. The first sentence. Because the first has already half-given birth to the next, and, it seems, if I write one here, instead, I will have escaped the deadly choice.

Frost and dream are formed of the same matter. I freeze, zamarzam, and cold dissolves the diphtong, "r" and "z" chatter as teeth. Marzę, and the dream dissolves the glacial brume. Sleeping body lies frozen in the ice sheets. Marznę, I am cold, and refuse to awake. The dream holds me captive. It has its seasons.

le pays devient étale.

le peuple habitait dans un bocal. les mots, aussitôt prononcés, s'écrasaient comme des mouches aveugles contre le verre.

la langue me fait mal dans la bouche. je vais la mordre.

"do you have a minute for the environment?" asks a youth on a street corner.
i invent minute pills and distribute them to each inquirer. it's all fake, of course. i use aspirin tablets and with henna ink tattoo "1 minute" on each white button. i have pocketfulls of time. and because time is money, i try to trade it in the bank for green pills, but there definitely is some color discrimination going on, because bankers routinely deny my request.

Where? Over there. There, other than here, and yet not far from here. Where inhales, there exhales. Overhear. Over there. Not too far. However near. Insecure. Breathe, grieve. Sigh. Reprieve. Rhyme, skip. Wherever. While not here. It goes. It works. There, appears, separate. Nouns here, there verbs. Heave. Over. Here, hover. Breathless, lung pumps, bleeds air, or leaks, over there, closer, separate. Where? There is no from there to here. Here and there. Or here. Candor. Overly. Heft. Here is as it is. Leave. Go there. Work. Their blood is heavier than her lung. While not here. Blind. Strong verbs command. Nouns move. Then and now. As if. Where here, there hither. Laugh. Lash. Nearer than there. Not entirely here. Laugh is there. Over there. Under work. Under. Lung sings, blood stains. Underheard. Her ear.