Saturday, November 19, 2022

Salt

 


Photo, Aaron Draper


Sometimes I stare at a window

or a door, trying to make out

the phantoms that stalk it.

 

Do I think I can decipher 

the missing glass

if I look hard enough?

 

But... have I ever told you?

 

I have never told you about

the time I heard your voice

like a blunt knife twisting in my vitals

whispering to someone 

something I had asked you

to hold tightly inside you.

 

Something to be kept sacred,

moist with blood and tears—

my relic, and yours.

 

And I always thought you innocent.

How speechless my disbelief!

 

But I heard the manic 

thunder of transgression,

as if from an impending storm.

 

And I felt the window quake shamelessly

before it swung wide open and

s.h.a.t.t.e.r.e.d.

at the sin

yes, the sin

of it all!

 

My eyes splintered when the question

Do I know you?

swept in like a sinuous hurricane.

 

I could not hold it back.

I could not banish it like I wanted to.

 

I could not separate it from the vacant,

keening face of that window.

 

I could not keep it from wanting to

kidnap me from you.

 

So I angled,

delivering my body to its voice,

 

And I caved,

wearing my crown of jagged glass,

 

And I surrendered,

wordlessly, letting it carry me away.

 

Like a bent sail rocking in a restless tide.

 

Like a fragile vessel filled to the brim with

the evidence of your crime.

 

Like a sunken statue, stone cold,

bristling with submission,

sworn to infernal silence.


4 comments:

A Cuban In London said...

Good to see you're still writing.

Greetings from London.

Cremilde said...

Coucou Nevine! J'espère que la vie te sourit et que la santé est bonne!
Merci pour le partage de si beau poème!
"Comme un vaisseau fragile rempli à ras bord de
des preuves de "son" crime" c'est ce que je ressens en ce moment-même!!!
Je te fais de gros bisous et te souhaite tout plein de belles choses! Smack!

Nevine Sultan said...

Hello, Cuban. So wonderful to see you here. I don't write much here, these days. Life is quite busy and I don't have the time to post, comment on others' posts, and reply to comments. But, I keep trying to stay engaged because I do love the respite this space offers me and others who are trying to get away from the busy-ness of life. I hope to swing by soon...

Nevine Sultan said...

Coucou, ma belle Cremilde! Comme toujours, perspective merveilleuse! Je vais te contacter par email. Beaucoup à partager... ;) Gros gros bisous, ma belle amie!!!