Connor and Jack explore the fantastic poem "First Quarantine With Abdelhalim Hafez" by Safia Elhillo. Connor fixates on the tensions between the figurative and literal and Jack goes deep on his and the poem's obsessions, and also pulls off a Werner Herzog impression. Check out the poem below, or at this link: https://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/poetry/crossroads/own_words/African_poets_tatu/ Read more about Safia Elhillo here: http://safia-mafia.com/bio Listen to the full Abdelhalim Hafez song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro_peC026lE Read the referenced interview with Elhillo here: http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/unapologetic-black-muslim-sudanese-american-an-interview-with-safia-elhillo/ Find us on facebook at: facebook.com/closetalking Find us on twitter at: twitter.com/closetalking You can always send us an e-mail with thoughts on this or any of our previous podcasts, as well as suggestions for future shows, at [email protected]. First Quarantine With Abdelhalim Hafez by Safia Elhillo & maybe it is too easy to blame mortality on our capacity for love the slow death that is putting your breath in another's body trusting your name in another mouth but maybe it is smaller say water sweat yes tears yes but also the nile as a vein between our two home countries washing the red dust from my feet yes cooling the sear of a blood-orange sun yes but also killing you the way only foul water can kill & i do know how it is to be young & always sick at the mercy of something meant to immortalize us the slow finish is in my heart its syrup trickle & i don't mean love i mean my wet crooked actual heart

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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