Poetry: “khoaga” by Antony Fangary

khoaga

i don/t know what the fuck they are saying london 
something about living by a river in london

about debts/ exploration/ and quality cotton
about snakes tangling tail to belly in london

i spat on cleopatra/s needle when i saw it there/
it lies between two brass sphinxes cast in london 

with a plaque commemorating something about war/ 
the obelisk/s story/ and then there/s me in london 

rolling a thin spliff outside buckingham palace 
asking a soldier something about art in london

about commonwealth/ lord comer/ and 1882/
about why i cant find any good weed in london

his eyes mark me thingified while he hugs an empty
bull pup rifle/ unloaded guns mean love in london

a shakespearean lovestory between me/ london/
and blooded/         gun licked gum in cairo

gidu says cairo means captured in arabic/ says
something about war as beginning in cairo/ 

war as culture/ war as history/ war as war/
and everything else/s just dirt and sand in cairo/  

teta says these are crazy people in london
that they swept centuries under tablecloths in london/ 

that art can be theft/ and/ i am just cairo/
and/ we are just dirt/ just war in london 

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About Antony Fangary

Antony Fangary is a writer, visual artist, and satirist. He is a PhD Candidate at the University of Denver and has received and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Center for Cultural Innovation, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the San Francisco Arts Commission.