DELUSION

by Jocelyn Ajami

AI-generated graphic by NightCafé for The New Verse News.

In the libraries of distortion

eyes blur mites with dust

they scan empty racks 

like x-rays of aging spines

the shelves bend and tilt 

from the heft of books

once held with reverence

tossed out like easy trash 

In the libraries of distortion

mirrors line the walls 

from ceiling to floor, multiplying

a gleaming buzz

that binges on translucence—

Narcissus on steroids— 

In the libraries of distortion

there are no chairs, tables

or stools, only beds

that glitter, bearing pallid 

corpses, ensured 

a good read on life

Jocelyn Ajami is a painter, filmmaker and poet. She turned to writing poetry in 2014 as a way of connecting more intimately with issues of social conscience and cultural awareness. She has been published in various anthologies of prize winning poems and has been nominated for Pushcart and Touchstone awards.

CHANTING OVER GRAVES

by Jocelyn Ajami

AI-generated gif by NightCafé for The New Verse News

     “Our Golden Age has just begun.” —Donald Trump

Gold is great

From the rubble they erect gaudy 

temples, trimmed with gold and lust 

Wine cellars lick the soil, imbued 

with the fetid scent of slaughter 

Gold is great

From children’s eyes they steal  

rainbows to light arches and roulettes

from their marrow, mortar to seal the               

sandstone fronts

Their hair thread arabesques 

into the dice that roll and roll

Gold is great 

The root of sorrow, buried beneath 

the shimmering spectacle, seethes…

slowly migrating, breaching sea

and stone

until no false suns remain 

to scorch the truth 

Jocelyn Ajami is a painter, filmmaker and poet. She turned to writing poetry in 2014 as a way of connecting more intimately with issues of social conscience and cultural awareness. She has been published in various anthologies of prize winning poems and has been nominated for Pushcart and Touchstone awards.

BLANK PAGE

by Jocelyn Ajami

AI-generated graphic by Shutterstock for The New Verse News.

After Francesca Albanese’s U.N. report on
               “Genocide as Colonial Erasure”

a poem’s lines ripple 
like ridges of ancient sands

couplets ring fervent notes
a distant hand intrudes

unfamiliar chimes
the new timbre

incongruent to the tone
it clips the old refrains

although the verse lingers
it is never free 

the fitful hand scrubs lines
slowly mutilating the structure

gobbling vowels and vows
nothing satisfies its lust

the poem still has claws
but no wings

clinging to its soil 

when battered lines shrill 

against white space, the hand races 

to delete remaining words

and proclaim erasure

a blank page all its own

Jocelyn Ajami is an award winning painter, filmmaker and poet. Jocelyn has received several awards for her films, Oasis of Peace, Gypsy Heart and Queen of the Gypsies. She turned to writing poetry in 2014 as a way of connecting more intimately with issues of social conscience and cultural awareness. She has been published in several anthologies of prize winning poems. Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, she speaks five languages and lives in Chicago, Illinois.

COLLATERAL DAMAGE

by Jocelyn Ajami

Credit...Mahmud Hams/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images via The New York Times, November 13, 2023.

In the competition 

over who is more 

the victim

who is more humane

no child votes.

No child, bruised 

and maimed

battered and beaten

claims membership 

to an aristocracy 

of woes.

In the competition over

who is more 

barbaric

no child, body

peppered with bullets 

propounds…

No child whose lungs and 

larynx collapse under 

the weight of boulders

vindicates the winner

raising his mutilated 

limbs in pride. 

In the competition 

over who is more 

human

no child condemns 

or commends

suffocating

underneath the flaming 

rubble, abandoned

and unclaimed 

in playgrounds 

of slaughter.

Blood void of bias 

splatters on stone

calligraphy of carnage 

to which no child

hurls

a single stroke. 

Jocelyn Ajami is an award winning painter, filmmaker and poet. Jocelyn has received several awards for her films, Oasis of Peace, Gypsy Heart and Queen of the Gypsies. She turned to writing poetry in 2014 as a way of connecting more intimately with issues of social conscience and cultural awareness. She has been published in several anthologies of prize winning poems. Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, she speaks five languages and lives in Chicago, Illinois.