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noura Apr 2021
3/4
You must have known.
That day I held your hand and you held my gaze
And the air was thick with smoke and unspoken words and tiresome clichés.
Your eyes crinkled softly like they always do.
Always, always in the pretentious books I would pour over for hours as I try to envision myself right there,
Comforting myself with the idea that someone, one day, will dance with me to the sound of nothing but two hearts beating in unison.
There is something desperately intimate about oxygenation.
Always in these silly, profound books, they describe their darling’s eyes with every hue known to man.
Deep, aquamarine, sparkling crystal orbs that you would be so happy to drown in.
Entrancing and stormy forests.
Pools of warm honey with gold flecks in them, sweet as dandelion wine.

I will not condescend to compare your eyes to saccharine.
Or bodies of water, for that matter, or trees.
I will not waste time equalizing them to shades of the rainbow.
What are eyes, really,
Other than a means to see?
All that is beautiful and all that is clean.
I hold my own eyes in higher esteem than yours, dear,
Because they allow me to revel in the way yours light up when you smile.
How the skin underneath creases and wrinkles in all the most endearing ways
Like the infinite pages of a book in some foreign language
That only I can understand.
The ability to do so is a prerogative of the infatuated.

I wonder if you’ll let me read this book more often now that we’re here, two forgotten souls grinning stupidly at each other in the dark.
You must have known, then, that I would spend every day of the rest of my life reading this book if you only allowed me to do so.
Embedded in my mind was the way the corners of your mouth shot up towards the heavens.
I did not have to trace it to know that it was there.
You must have known.
There was not a crumb of my being you did not hold in the callused palm of your hand.
All of the streetlights were doused by the blanket of the night and it was truly not a movie-worthy moment because there were no stars and the moon was out of sight and there were stray cats padding around in the neglected garbage dumpster and I could not even remember why we were laughing so hard and I loved you.
Unequivocally.
noura Jun 2020
In my little kingdom of wishes
sleepy visions of an excellent dream I once had
in which the future was beautiful and certain and bright
frolic in their silk night clothes
through eggplant skies,
and scraps of
happy endings
perfect romances
resolved tragedies
good and brave protagonists
rejoice in broad and eternal moonlight.

They skip merrily,
hand in hand with the heavenly souls of
pearly and pure memories
and nostalgic happy days
sparkling and rosy as diamond studded clouds.
Materialistic desires
are seldom seen.
In fact they are quite nearly banned
greedy and unsatisfied *******, they are.

And aloft this delightful spectacle
dwell raised spirits and high hopes
and blessings
that twinkle kindly and pour down
torrentially
upon all the inhabitants of
my little kingdom of wishes.
noura May 2020
they keep running out like roll film before me
pictures clicking away faster than i can see
never repeating old faces flashing by
who are you? perhaps seen once in a lullaby
projector is strangely static - the cartridge drops
still it’s going and it’s going and it never stops
nothing! nothing but it’s all over my fingertips
smudged on my forehead and dripping from my lips
i cannot perceive these silverscreens
tangible airs or figments of my dreams
going and going until it tears and rips
nothing! endless nothings all over my fingertips
noura May 2020
The yellow man burst into the tea shop
With his bride in his arms and his eyes full of sunlight
“Look at my beautiful wife!”
said he
“See how she glows!
Blessed is me!
For nobody knows
the bedazzlement of the glance
the electricity of the trace
the tenderness of the honey glazed lips
and fond stroke of the face
of the lover who is truly yours.”
And the gray man scoffed in odium
With a hint of despair
“Silly yellow man,
Don't you know
What love you boast is but a foolish affair?
All good things come to an end
And therefore I recommend
You put away your heart lest it be crushed”
The yellow man paused and looked on with pity
“Gray fellow, which maiden
Hath done such damage upon your soul?
Why are you repulsed
And your heart unladen?”
And the gray man looked down at the floor
With an air of shame
“Love is but an unfair game I fear
In which I have been cheated
And love has been unkind to me.”

— The End —