Sa'laka translated variously as vagabondism, social rebellion or outsider status has a venerable status in Arabic literature beginning in the pre-modern era. Several well-known sa'alik were also famous poets in the period of the jahiliyya, and the practice continued through the Umayyad and early Abbasid eras. Then su´luk poetry appears to recede or disappear for reasons that are not well understood until the modern era, when new sa'alik poets emerge, most strongly in Iraq, in the 20th century. The panel presentation will focus mostly on the modern sa'alik, and attempt to highlight some of the theoretical issues concerning the underlying social, cultural, and literary factors that challenge our understanding of the roots of modern sa'laka; its location, thematics, and links to Arabic literary modernity. It is clear that the lifestyle intrinsic to sa?laka is primarily a homosocial (and antisocial) one, and would not be sustainable for a woman in 20th century because of the lifestyle of living on the pavements and in cheap bars, so unless some fraternity of vagabond women emerge in the coming decades/centuries there is no possibility of a female su?luk. I will focus on two modern sa´alik poets, Husayn Mardan (1927-1972) and Jan Dammu (1943-2003). I will discuss Mardan's revolt against the bourgeois modernization plans of the monarchy era and in creating nathr murakkaz as a new poetic genre. I will also highlight Jan Dammu's absurdist parody of the "heroic literature" of the Iran-Iraq war and his clownish mocking of the leading poets in the era of the Baathist dictatorship of Saddam Husayn.