OLFA PHILO (DRID)

OLFA PHILO

(DRID)

MAGNETIC WOMAN

Magnetic woman

walking down the street

turning heads,

blowing minds,

blocking  traffic

making hearts beat

for her, some displayed their cars

& offered her rides,

others displayed their

financial muscles and castles,

others couldn’t help singing her praises,

others with their pants down

tempted her expectations to rise!

but when she turned a blind eye on them,

they felt belittled & darted her ears

with insults, blasphemes &

obscene words…

disgusted by their incorrigible heat

by their awful offers unfit,

carried on her way

her head held HIGH

laughing secretly

at their ‘shit’!

wondering about

the frailty of those so–to-speak ‘proud’ lions

at her sight turning into sheep,

about the domestic cats

metamorphosing all of a sudden

into wolves,

about those barking dogs

hungry for her ‘meat’...

she knew she had such power

to have them all under her feet,

but just had pity for those

mere ‘puppets’ with

neither souls nor wit…

Had they perceived the

beating diamond

she’s housing inside,

they would have been

dazzled by its light &

recovered reason and insight,

they would have been ashamed

of the inert diamonds of

their trivial trade,

they would have been

ashamed of being unable

to hit their target

ashamed of reducing themselves

to beasts…

OPPRESSED WOMEN

withering roses

pale look

consumed scent

bowing heads

fading color

dry stems

falling petals

shrunken leaves

vanishing beauty

ghostly life...

WO-MEN

We're the hook

& the fish

We're the hypnotizers

& the monopolizers

We're the lighters

& the biters

We're the flowers

and the thorns

We're the inflamers

& the tamers

We're the culprits

& the victims

We're the authentic

& the romantic

We're the demanding

& the understanding

We're the accessible

& the untouchable

We're the frivolous

& the serious

We're the actresses

& the filmmakers

We're the dreamers

& the schemers

We're the angels

& the witches

We're your 'breeders'

& your feeders

We're your cushion

& your mattress

We're your headache

& your medicine

We're your pain

& your worthiest gain

We're your body shakers

& your heart-breakers

We're your sea waves

& your caves

We're your killers

& your healers

We're your mind cook

& your Chinese book ...

Among us,

the smart

& the fool

the boring

& the cool

the sweet honey

& the absorber of money

the unbearable nagger

& the devil-dragger

the mind-reader

& the wise leader…

We can be

your dolls,

your balls

or the impenetrable walls

Our clue is praise

to discern your path

in our maze

If you break our hearts,

you're promptly set apart ...

We're the wo-men from A to Z

As our name connotes (wo-men)

you're embedded in us

In our arms you strive to BE

for a short time then FLEE ...

OLFA PHILO (DRID)

OLFA PHILO (DRID) is a Tunisian writer and poetess. She holds a PhD in American Literature. A former international volleyball player, she is currently an English teacher. Her cause as a poet is to voice the buried emotions and phobias of the oppressed and downtrodden as well as to unmask and expose hidden truths socially considered taboo or shameful. Her poems have appeared in many international anthologies of poetry and in different online and print literary journals  in USA, UK, Canada, India, China,  Philippines, Albania, Uzbekistan, Serbia, Belgium, Iraq and Italy. Some of her poems have been translated into Arabic, Serbian, Chinese, Albanian, Spanish  and Assamese. She has recently created her youtube channel where she uploaded some videos of her recited and illustrated poems.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChMcYZtsitYOCixxYM5Kz5g