My name is Mohamed Cheaib also known as Flay. I am an Architect, Urban planner and poet. You can find my work on Instagram @greyscalearchitects
You can also reach me at my email
muhd.cheaib17@hotmail.com
Photo credit: Hasan Almasi
Long Live Us
By Flay
Plant your feet,
Into the ground and gaze,
Your voice, your skull,
No longer yours to raise,
Can you see?
Our foes over there,
I pity them,
I pity them, I swear,
They outnumber us,
They outsmart us,
And I pity them,
Long, long live us,
More keen,
In their ways of battle,
More agile and whole,
For years, they have trained,
For More,
Than your pitiful soul,
They are determined
And honed,
To rid the earth from our blood,
But we will make them remember,
We belong,
Into the mud,
Because this,
This I promise my friend,
That when the night is red,
Every single one of them,
Tomorrow,
Will be dead,
I pity them,
I pity this Land,
I pity us,
And long, long live us,
–
You see,
They are the strongest,
Men of the unknown,
But they are,
Mere soldiers,
Of flesh and blood And bone,
They never fought our battles,
And they,
They do not sting like us,
They know nothing of our ways,
When we drag them
Into the cuss,
By the orders,
That they live,
Balancing the world of disaster,
A definition,
They remember to give,
Which puppet of which master,
They think,
Our philosophies are tainted,
That ideas are the cancer,
That we are the anomaly,
To question,
What they answer,
They label Us,
They sentence Us,
They call Us the Impure,
And long, long live Us,
–
But they are wrong,
My friend,
They are dead wrong,
They never knew,
That for us,
Death is an old song,
While they lived above the ground,
They devour,
And consumed our gain,
Of our children they heard no sound,
And all we get,
Remains of remain,
For a scrap of bread
We roll our eyes,
We stab and kill And entertain,
Food or shelter
Was the prize,
For selling every scrap of brain,
They denied names,
And hid their games,
To sing and dance along,
Where they made,
And where they played,
The concept of right and wrong,
While we watched,
Our blood of bloods,
Wither away with the gust,
From the plague of times,
And the bitter crimes,
We drown paralyzed by lust,
They sang tales,
Of holy grails,
Underneath the meadows of the Sun,
And they danced,
For what prevails,
And for what the soul has done,
We desperately clung,
And hid among,
To survive the storming sea,
In frozen deserts,
And in sickening pits,
We withstood and came to be,
And still,
They threaten us,
By gallows they built,
By shames and names
And guilt,
By rocks they, throw on us,
By the cuss,
And the fuss,
And long, long live us,
–
Our suffering,
Has become our strength,
As we learned the habit of Sorrow,
Addicted to agony,
And numb by ignorance,
For the morning ballad is hollow,
But they do not see,
This soul is free,
Beyond faces yellow and red,
For hearts beat,
Of a time to keep,
The rebirth of the dead,
And just,
To Enlighten them,
Let Us,
Wake them up,
By screams,
of unborn children,
By dreams,
of slaughtered youth,
And by memories,
Of forgotten heroes,
Because within Us,
Flows the blood of martyrs,
The tears of widows,
The scars of survivors,
And within all of Us,
Beyond all of Us,
The undead nature of man,
And long,
Long live Us
Photo credit: Christian Langballe
The Wolf
By Flay
Close your doors
turn off the light
you’re finally warm
satisfied and fed.
Close your curtains
to keep the night.
Check the closet
and under your bed,
but did you think
you’re safe or might
escape the monster
in your head?
Another day,
you escaped my claws,
you rolled your dice
of fate again
and luck again
was on your side,
but do you feel it
closing in,
roll and roll
and play your cards,
but the worst of curses
are deep within.
I am the wolf
who lurks the night,
I am the shadow
of your light,
I play the leaves
pale of blight
and haunt your brain
frozen by fright.
So keep your time
through sin and crime
because all I need,
is just one bite.
All I need
is an ugly break
All I need,
is a slip you make
All I need,
is a strike unmade
And all to take,
when your card is played
Photo credit: Rachel Chisholm
Now I see it in her eyes
By Flay
At a dread droll dull day
As boring as all shall past
Covered with mist of gray
Vision of delusion’s cast
With a walk long and flat
As normal of a life before
Nothing exciting with that
Yet my heart pleads for more
So mild the drizzled rain
Yet so pale I was and worn
Angry to my dismay of pain
In a mood of bitter forlorn
The world bent on my chest
As hard to breath and stand
I struggled to meet my best
With a cold and trembling hand
Armless, unprepared to fight
Of a dread day of gloom
In my life of fading light
And the hollow face of doom
–
But then I heard it slow
From behind a voice so mild
Those whispers I heard in low
Of this world running wild
I stopped and waited to see
Who should emerge of the walk
That dim light caressing me
And like a pelican I stood and stalk
A figure short and pleasant
Briskly came to my sight
Yet I never realized my present
Of her flare shinning bright
As if there was a greater sun
In a gray and sorrowful sky
As if the walk was new and fun
And the flower may never die
She was there, at a single stare
Before me so calm and serene
Of what pain and of what despair?
Of what I know? yet never seen
In the gray with a rosy face
A perfect contrast with the cold air
And I was frozen in my place
My reality was trapped with her
Her eyes so brown and rich
Sparkling like water in the well
Puzzled and couldn’t tell which
And I knew in what hell I fell
And the wind blows her hair
Of a perfume of cheerful taste
And I knew what we would share
Like everything is perfectly placed
–
She saw me there on the stair
In a glum and fading state
And I wanted to caress her
Yet I realized the irony of fate
Of two battling worlds I saw
Her’s filled with joy and peace
And mine’s with suffers I know
That I long for a life to cease
Yet with a smile she took the flow
And I surrendered to her flare
Inviting and genuine will show
Of a life I could not dare
So pure, so soft, and evergreen
Completely untainted by the day
Bursting with warmth I glean
Of this man from dust and clay
After that it was never the same
As I walk with a spark within me
After that the day was never lame
And my soul forever will be free
One smile that I want mine
One special at my sweet suffocation
Of my life I waited that sign
At a spell of bitter-sweet sensation
She turned at my own dismay
With a smile from heavenly skies
I’ve seen the world in gray
But now I see it in her eyes
