along the glass door. a poem by Mansour Noorbakhsh

along the glass door

this poem is supposed to talk 
about your character 
but i don’t know you much 

it’s not true too if i say 
i don’t know you, since 
i know how much you have changed me

if it talks about changes you made to me
thus, it speaks about you

let it words my grief of not knowing 
how you have changed along with me
the changes it talks about 
have not come from a statue 

once i realized am changed
thus, i saw you, rooted in mutual changes

perhaps feeling thrives like pollination
that exchanges life within alive plants 

along passing the glass door, 
like me,
you were sinking slowly, slowly
you were smouldering to ashes bit by bit 

perhaps apathy is a fire that expands 
from one plant to another, 
whether alive or dead

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Mansour Noorbakhsh writes and translates poems in both English and Farsi, his first language. He tries to be a voice for freedom, human rights and environment in his writings. He believes a dialog between people around the world is an essential need for developing a peaceful world, and poetry helps this dialog echoes the human rights. Currently he is featuring The Contemporary Canadian Poets in a weekly Persian radio program https://persianradio.net/. The poet’s bio and poems are translated into Farsi and read to the Persian-Canadian audiences. Both English (by the poets) and Farsi (by him) readings are on air. This is a project of his to build bridges between the Persian-Canadian communities by way of introducing them to contemporary Canadian poets. His book about the life and work of Sohrab Sepehri entitled, “Be Soragh e Man Agar Miaeed” (trans. “If you come to visit me”) is published in 1997 in Iran. And his English book length poem; “In Search of Shared Wishes” is published in 2017 in Canada. His English poems are published in “WordCity monthly” and “Infinite Passages” (anthology 2020 by The Ontario Poetry Society). He is a member of The Ontario Poetry Society and he is an Electrical Engineer, P.Eng. He lives with his wife, his daughter and his son in Toronto, Canada.