Tuesday poem #308 : Michael Turner : I Ran to Persia

for Mohammad Salemy 

arms by my side, bent forward
backwards down Valiasr
past Benneton, Reebok, Adidas

down Mossadeq, Pahlavi, running
arms by my side, bent forward
carpets, blankets, backwards 

past CIA, MI6
standing on the sidewalk
hands on hips, pretending not to

notice the truck across the street
don’t look – the red one
the driver has a Leica

Michael Turner [photo credit: Olive Liesch] was born on unceded Squamish territory (North Vancouver, B.C.) in 1962 and spent his teenage summers working in the Skeena River salmon fishery. His first book, Company Town (1991), was nominated for a Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. His second book, Hard Core Logo (1993), was adapted to feature-film. Kingsway (1995), American Whiskey Bar (1997), The Pornographer’s Poem (1999), 8x10 (2009) and 9x11 and other poems like Bird, Nine, x and Eleven (2018) followed. A frequent collaborator, he has written scripts with Stan Douglas, poems with Geoffrey Farmer and songs with cub, Dream Warriors, Fishbone and Kinnie Starr. At present he is Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences and School of Interdisciplinary Studies and Graduate Studies at OCAD University.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan