The defecation bucket and flies
And mosquitoes
The flies and the bucket and prison walls and prison guards
Ants, prison walls, and mice and prison guards
The flies, defecation bucket, and rats
Defecation bucket, the flies, and mosquitoes
Defecation bucket, the flies, and the prison walls
The prison guards, ants, and mice,
And rats, guards, rats, walls, mice
Ibrahim El-Salahi: In the cell, there were ten of us. Packed like sardines. On the concrete floor. No beds, no mattresses, nothing. Each of us was given just a blanket and nothing else. I remember next to the cell there was a bucket that was always flowing toward us. It was terrible.
Publication excerpt from Ibrahim El-Salahi. Prison Notebook, 1976. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2018.