The winds from where you grew up
Strike conversations at midnight
Your thoughts, now paper planes
Take off into memory lanes
And your feet, aching soles
Search for branches, and petals
That remind you of home
The taste of sweet dates still dancing on your tongue
Sweet syrup stretches its limbs
Through your nose
Sensations of a past soaked in white noise
When did you leave it behind?
And you think back to the time
When you walked with your naïve self
Too young to comprehend
Back onto a boat
In those dreams that never escape you
Called memories

Parallel tables down this neighbourhood street
I can see some of them from distant windows
One is vacated
One is full, people buzzing about
Hot food coming out of the kitchen onto the table
Bubbling, boiling soups, freshly tossed salads
Glasses brimming with new stories
Then, to the right, a person
Sits at their table alone,
One dim light, eating from a bowl
My guess is cereal.
Stories, stories, stories
Troubling questions
Awkward silence
He’s meeting the parents today
So, he fidgets and taps his feet
She’s telling them she got into college
He just got home from his best friend’s funeral
The other house is dark,
They always have dinner at six
But today, the lights are off
Trip? No.
They’re saying goodbye to grandma in the hospital
That couple in the duplex
I think it’s their delivery date
There’s that one house,
Everyone eats at a different time
Mom, daughter, and second daughter rotate washing dishes
but the older one just got married
it looks like they are still settling into the newfound gaps
her brother left today
a house that used to be loud and crowded
now, two empty nesters
they never eat at the table anymore
they put on the TV
with their plates
because the couch is a smaller space to fill
than these dining room tables

In the fabric of time exists
moonlit seas of happenstance
and rose-scented memories
sewed in with golden beads
but it seems to me that life has found a way,
to sew in worn-out frayed threads,
that have lost their silky reflection

yet you,
with your resilient skin
found a way to make
embroidered mosaics of colour
out of the dissonance between good and bad

Do you remember when tunneling ravines would flow through our stomachs before we spoke out into the open?
And how vigorously tapping our feet felt like the only way to shake the mountains, daring to bury us alive...
or how when cold shoulders felt like judgment harmonized
and yet the dissonance euphonized in our ears as we swept our heads back into the open arms of the universe,
engulfed by inescapable laughter  

Now things are different; you wear your heart on your sleeve, washing the shores of people and things that scare you with your perpetual confidence,

and I proudly observe in wonder and admiration...

Distantly tapping my feet, fighting ravines, and laughing alone.

To be there under the shade of lemon trees
where my fingers can dig into the terracotta earth
or to be here, where cold nips at my skin
in summer and the spring, little hints of winter
always alive and well, in every greeting and farewell
I am, as you can see, often divided
between oceans and places, sometimes in the same room
I am divided between corners and angles
where I can have the best view
where I can hear the most and feel the least
where I can see the perfect way the sun dances
into our space around noon,
when it hits the glass just right
and divides, into colors, into blooming flowers
no matter the season, no matter the year  
I divided, shuffle around as if I were a photographer
Searching for the angle where it hits your face,
coming to light
coming to life

Broken words line these open seams
A bleeding heart rests in the palm of hope
You struggle to keep your hold on the ground
All your stitches are open doors
Ready to take in a lonely soul
At the expense of everything that was yours

“How do you feel?” I ask again. I, knowing the answer, poke my head into the lion's den. I feel the ghost of your frustrations floating about in the confined space. It haunts the room as our shadows strangle each other.

“What is the opposite of homesick?“ You ask.

“Homesick, ” I answer.

Dream, tell me
what have you heard
from the gossiping stars?
did they let my wishes
fall into the hands
of hummingbird nests?
did the quiet ocean blue
bring waves of things untrue?
Were you deceived by piano keys
lingering songs & eulogies?
Does the sun cleanse your lethargy
or are you like me?
Where it never reaches you in time
before everything fades to a quiet dark
tell me, Dream.

In the hours of the night
I'm thinking about you.
I'm restless, feeling vulnerable.
the stars are too far,
as they fade in the day.
The sun is awake,
and you're floating away.
I watch as you depart
but I lay here,
wondering when the night
will once again reappear,
but I keep dreaming
with my eyes wide open,
I dream of the future
and I hope you're listening,
to every wish I senselessly make,
because when I dream of you,
i'm finally awake.

I've read a couple books
been a few places
I even dreamt a little too
But I can never wake up
Like I used too.

Fireflies float in lightless rooms,
Spelling out words with fluid constellations
And my heart still tender from afternoon
Drugged up and fussed with the want of rain
Interprets these flecks of dancing
as love letters to pain

I think of dreaming and I think of you
Somewhere basking in summer rain
While I fall for foolish stories
written on the windows of a midnight train
These conversations that go nowhere
heavily soaked in honey stick to my tongue

These whisperings float in pools of ink
Like the daunting midnight sea,
But i'm too far gone into this dream state
Yet ready to drown, before I can hesitate,
In this ocean that you call home

The world will turn its corners
But I’ll wait till dusk to start a new climb
These December dreams will take years
A thousand sunsets and glassy tears
But I’ll find a way to walk along jagged edges
Take unwritten roads and mysterious paths
Meet the sky in its vulnerable darkness
Befriend the moon that likes to hide
Pledge my allegiance to the shadowy earth
Embrace the petrichor and the want of rain
I’ll run in my sleep, towards hollow skies
And drift away in boats dancing in turquoise seas
But if this is how I’ll find myself then let it be
For I am only who I am, when I am set free

I can feel the winter frost
The cold breeze biting at me
I can see the cracked ground
I know its the end of me
The days are shorter
The nights are colder
The trees are dying
My bones are shrivelled
Now I'm getting weak
Dry and brittle almost gone
I'm tearing apart
Winter brings my death
And I'll be gone away
Forgotten like a whisp
Something I used to be
I don't have nine lives
But I lived to only see
A world too big for a leaf like me

Water dripping down dark canals
I sit here expelling all the words soaked by my skin
Through the rainwater spout
Of this house I built
Foundations of fallen dreams
Rustle like newborn earthquakes under my feet


Something peculiar about these tainted windows
The goosebumps you left on me
The frame of this thesis that I have yet to write
About all the denial
and the six stages of grief that feast on my wrath


I am too far gone into the black
That I cannot forgive myself
For losing everything that made me
I threw our dreaming into the fire
and traded it for contentment


The pain of this aching desire
To become whole again
I threw it all into the fire
That burns this little house
And I carry the luggage
That you tied to my shoulders
with those arguments that sleep on my eyelids


somewhere I go, but nowhere creeps close
these maps are fading, and so are you
this exile is burning everything into ashes of tunnel vision
but what am I to do with these vestiges?
Seedlings of some light
The feeling of forest pine
The wandering scent of still fog


The petrichor under this damp earth
Calls my name and yours too
Should we just lay here on this black sand beach,
And build a new house from yesterday's dreams?

When they saw her walking on the streets,
They saw oppression, dehumanization, and inequality.
Whilst they oppressed her with their vision
She wore her cape of grace, her drapes of black chiffon
Which also covered her face
free from all the judgment regarding beauty and ideals

the world was threatened by her walk
Although her posture was humble
She still walked with queen like grace
For she was super women and her Abaya was her cape
Her Niqaab was her shield form the worlds disgrace
And her Hijab was the crown she wore with all her grace
And she was a true woman
A woman oppressed not by her faith
But by society's obligations
She IS a woman empowered,
Empowered by her faith.

Here's to the ephemeral nights carried away by the sounds of birds.
While you were tracing constellations in your popcorn ceiling
I was drowning in the midnight blue, thinking of love,
And how the shape of water reminds me of you,
I packed a bag of dreams for the bus ride down your memory road
To keep me occupied in your dreamscape world
as I chased remnants of wished-upon dandelions
back to the backyard where our laughter still circled with the wind
only to find you waiting with our two-handed promises still knotted together
the dreamscapes shed around us
and sunrise glow burned through our souls
shoulders hunched by weighted confrontations
night escaped hours ago, but I, desperate to hang on, drown in day-glow
My memories and dreams have melted into motion blur
And thoughts of you carry them away to the moon.


I am back to where you left me last, taking reality on a walk,
As a long summer day saunters ahead.

I often find myself
Stranded in the forgotten past,
searching for another way.
Send my apologies,
to those that wait for me.
Tell them my heart and soul
have separated.
Now I'm trekking on foot
through the burning sand.
I am searching for tomorrow
through the lens of my past,
time has now disappeared
it must be waiting on the other side.
Watching me lose myself
As I drown in my dissatisfaction.
All I know for now is that,
I'll escape my regrets some way
but not this time, not today.

You look down at the cracks in your hand
brushing them through hairs of silver moonlight
in your eyes, time has made its abode
and your gentle speech now informed
by a thousand spoken words

yet your smile is an emblem
of your eternal youth

Although moments are fleeting,
so are worries,
Even summer’s goodbye,
Is a mosaic of pigments
That one can not help but stare
In absolute admiration

Good things end,
and better things begin.

In your palms, a lingering remnant of moonlight
traces your fingerprints,
And it illuminates shards of evening rain that have landed on your skin as droplets of hope.
Together a nebula is painted on your hands,

And you find tranquility in evening wakefulness.

In wakefulness,
Your heartbeat stutters in its attempts to make peace with the impulsive evening rain.
But when you soak in the fog and embrace the coolness of winter's breath,
you will find that it will quietly sew itself into the scars that line your heart, and illuminate through your wounds in the shape of a dying ember, radiating warmth.

I distanced myself from them
Because I wasn't a kid anymore
But turns out neither were they

An excerpt from a fairytale:

“You found what you needed from some token of love. Happiness lived at the end of bridges crossed and burned. You swim into an abyss of     oblivion and build a home in a sea of happily ever afters no one has dared to travel past.”

An excerpt from reality:

“What you needed, found you. You spend your days walking across broken bridges, mending what’s left of them and staring out at the horizon. Where the distant sun, ever so close, kisses your skin, and you are where you’re meant to be, manifesting the energy of healing.”

I once poured my heart out onto some letter
Read it whenever you find yourself reminiscing about your childhood
On my tongue remains those words, the ones we stole from the graves of poets
They try to take shape into conversations, reaching my lips but still falling short
So they live out their days,
Becoming old memories
leaving behind the bitterness of sea salt

Words we never exchanged

I am lost on these paper boats
Floating somewhere in an old laugh
We once shared
I am lost in these baskets
Made of woven conversations
And now you, right here in front of me
Are someone new, I've yet to meet
I guess my weakness has gotten the better of me
Wishful thinking had me fooled
Things were as they used to be
But here you are, and here am I
A world of differences between us
Born out of the blue, paving our departure
You toward the forest
And I, towards the sea

Between the freshly picked flowers,
and my never ending thoughts.
I found a place to leave my dreams,
So that when I find myself wandering,
Into unknown scapes of remembrance,
I can throw away petals that spell my name.
I’ll stand by the water, my hands full of flowers,
and I’ll throw them into their graves.
Knowing that one day when it all turns around,
They’ll be reborn and I’ll pick them again.
I’ll drift off to sleep and dream of the bay where I would let them go all over again.

The spectacular quiet,
Is where the stars rest above the atmosphere
And where you lose the voice of reason
As you stare into the clouds
Hoping to catch a different dream
Searching for sounds you’ve never heard
Wisdom will tell you that’s life at its best
And youth will tell say you’re at your worst
Time will always live for the chase
And reminiscence will cloud your judgment
But when there is nothing but silence
And the sky is asleep,
You’ll hear the voice of your impossible dreams
Singing it’s famous lullaby
Waiting until you shut your eyes
To take your worries for a flight
And teach you how to say goodbye

She died from her own imagination.
She gave up on the world
She wanted to live her stories
And look at where she got
She let the writing trick her
Into falling for feather lust
A type of attraction made for
Writers like us

Lungs outlined with blue feathers
Ready to take off and fly
My fingertips like silk
Are incapable of holding on to anything
For too long

What can you hold against me?
Ghost stories I should've never shared?
Or that every time I dream out loud
I always seem to miss your outreached hand

What can you hold against me?
Besides this ache in every bone
That whispers to my soul
To let go for once, and try flying alone

Forgotten as I drown in a droplet of rain,
Feeling the power of the water in pain
Silence devours our only spirit or soul
Experiencing fear as you set your goal
The fire burning in your feet
The ache in your fingers To feel the heat
The shallow resemblance of cold blooded sensation
The calling of reckless invitation
To stand on the edge of a cliff in your heart
To taste the bitterness of a sour aimed dart
Then to break the silence with a whisper so loud
To write a melody that joins the crowd
Hoping to feel the turns of earth
As it spins on its axis with every new birth
A new adventure into the open
As life is precious once it's broken

The home we built was up in flames
but the cold air could not touch us

Our fences were broken by the wind
but we were once again face to face

I search for galaxies in your eyes
But all I find are the trembling stars
The ones the take you by the hand
Despite all the good and all the bad
And dance with you on the surface of the moon
Until your hand comes reaching out
And you pull me through space and time
Only to find that I’m lost at sea
Searching for your starry sky
But you’ve been here all along
The fire in my soul, the glitter in my lies  
You’re the universe I’m searching to find
And I’m the lost galaxy in your eyes

I was standing on firestones
And your eyes were like the sun
Pools of vast unknown
Watching my faltering silence fade
And when I was dancing out loud
And my words were my aching feet
You had swept away
To watch over another sea
As I was wallowing in my defeat
Waiting for the sunrise
To talk to you in silence, the mother of my speech

You take flights on paper planes
on September nights to escape the rain
love sits beside you
and so does pain  
in their hands, feelings from June
and they sit there waiting  
to take you to the moon

Leave the window open
Let wind sneak in
As it numbs my skin like a sharp pin
Let it flow to the papers
As they rustle around
I want it here flipping pages
Of letters from you I found
Let it whisper all the words
And read me all the passages
Let the window open
Let it flip the pages
And lift me off the ground

I reached into my chest
To free these sutures of moonglade
Reaching deep into the pulse
That is sinking into this still water
My boat, tethered to my hands
Cuts its ties, taking this heart
Deep into the moonlit sea

Two withering souls
Lost in downtown fog
With their stories written in neon lights
And their destinies tied together
Gazing at each other
Through the reflection
Of blazing streetlights
In hidden puddles
Scattered around vacant parking lots
Dancing like ghosts
With honey on their tongues
A million longing words
Without ever uttering one
A sleeping city tells their tale
Of a longing moon and a loving sun

It looks like adversity has gotten the better  of me.
I’m bruised, exhausted but I can hardly sleep.
The sun is unforgiving as it steals my shade.
Now I’m vulnerable right in front of your face.
My heart is always racing whenever I’m day dreaming.
My mind often floats away to another place.
I can’t seem to forgive you, I can’t seem to forget,
but I’ve been chasing your apologies alongside all my regrets.
It’s what makes me human when I’m running from your threats,
but your stare is so forgiving, your gaze floods my heart.
I’m lost in a trance that sets the world apart.
Trapped in my everlasting reality, but I found my way back.
Except, I forgot who I was on this endless rigid track.
I had it all wrong, now I’m the one to forgive.
I like to make myself the victim of your mindless tricks,
but dear time, you’re only playing your perfect role
Because it’s my fault,
I’m the one that forgot how to forgive my soul.

living through droughts
Drowning in doubts
Trying to escape the lives
Counting down long drives
Could never make it home in time
Where have we been
I broke a few promises
Now I live for regret
They told me I might be insane
But I've been here for the want of rain

You...
The light I never saw
The morning of despair
The remembrance of a soul so fair
A world of forgotten happiness
And a day of burning desire
Countless light reflections of everything we missed
And thoughtless chatter, I'd admire
And if it was still lacking
I'd take photos of us too
Paste them in my dreams
And keep them just for
...you

There was nothing better
Nothing that made me feel alive
Nothing better than to breath,
Let go of everything
And finally open my lungs,
air that is so fresh none could compare,
breath in the feeling of freedom

I sit here listening,
to words, you have yet to speak
knowing that for you,
I would lose everything to the sea

fireflies glow, with memories
sewn into my bones
remembering the way we spoke
to the wind  

promises fade; lost in translation

From the echoes of the future
What would you like to hear?
I hear sea breeze and glittering leaves
Rustling in a wind that has travelled from yesterday
Touched your palms and took you dancing on the moon
Then bid it's farewell to meet you once again someday

If this is all we've left behind
Of fractured conversations broken up by laughs and cries
I hope that somewhere under this broken starlight
You find the strength to dream and feel
And when you sleep, all your prayers reverberate through the atmosphere

We shall meet someday, in a moment of realization
Or in someone's loving daze
We shall watch the sunset and wave our last goodbyes

From: the past
To: the future

Chase after moments and collect them like I collect the stars in your eyes.

Dance with the moonlight when you’re feeling ok, and I’ll watch your smile as I find mine.

Tell me your sorrows and rain down your greys. I’ll water the garden that you planted in my heart.

Kiss my forehead and watch me as your lips move to pray, I’ll keep your hands within mine.

Don’t just be my mother, be my moon and my sky, and I’ll dream of the night time.

From the rivers of moonlight
That are flowing through these veins
I hope to light the darkness
That has showered you with rain
Maybe from this light and whatever it may reap
We can weave together a thousand memories
Enough to rival the light of a new day
And if even then, the night is too much to bear
I'll rekindle my friendship with the dawn Asking for favours to keep you under its care

You have always given me enough space
For my laughter to stretch it's healing bones
I don't have much in the corners where I reside
Besides enough room in this soul of mine
For the both of us to sit and recline

I don't have much space in this beating heart
It's still under repairs and renovations
But I will find a way to stretch it thin
To let it's shadow cast over you
And shield you from the glaring sun

From whatever remains..

from your name
I have built a world
It's made of memories
And all the things you loved
I stole pieces of the moon
from the nights we could not sleep
where you told me stories of your past
and ways for me to be
and now they illuminate
all the city streets
of houses and homes
that you have grieved
and I paint this world
onto the walls of this place
that whisper your name
every day to me
so that I can walk past
and remember
all the ways you taught me to breathe

I see my reflection in the rain drops,
My fears are painted across the sky,
My ambitions have disappeared,
They go where the sun rays strike,
But today is a different year,
And I’m on the edge of my life,
there is a glow on this rainy day,
But It’s somewhere I can’t seem to find,
It follows the trees somewhere far,
All I know is that with it here,
Time will pass and everything will
disappear,
I’ll be okay,
and the skies will clear.

Rose tears cover the sky
a blanket of snow rests on the surface
and the sun hides behind blushing clouds
morning comes waving letters
written by golden moments
infused with memories of the past
and comes hope,

disguised as an uncertain future

Take your grief and sink it into a pool of velvet red
Watch as green leaves flourish
And the petals dyed by your bottled up pain
Extend their arms to greet you
A melancholic flower,
a symbol of the strength you endure
To keep holding on to the sky