bits of flesh scattered | Ivan de Monbrison

(cover photograph direction: Dagim Abebe)

bits of flesh scattered

all over a window

I remember it vividly

it was after my second birth

let’s not forget all the others

as they may have stayed locked up

inside a burning church

suicide

what’s else left for us to do?

she told him

it is so late my darling

it’s now time

to brush your teeth

and go to bed

I have never been really

alive

nor either truly dead

Ivan de Monbrison

is a person affected by strong psychic disorders that prevent him from having what others may call a “normal” life. He has found writing to be an exit to this prison. Or maybe it is a window from which – like an inmate – he can see a small square of blue sky above his head. His writing often reflects the never-ending chaos within him, but contrary to this mental chaos, the paper and the pen give him the opportunity to materialize this in a concrete and visible form. Writing can feel like a slow death, but it’s better than mere suicide in the end.