“This is the one!” my little girl exclaimed, “This is the candy that stays sour all the way through! Let’s get it! You won’t be able to handle it, your tongue will burn after!” So I bought her this small candy that they thankfully sold in singles, and I got one for myself too. WeContinue reading “Sour Candy by the Bougainvillea Bush”
Category Archives: Poetry
From Flour, to Dough, to Bread
She let me take in the life in her – the real private one and the one she propped to share – hoping that when it’s fully inside my spirit, I’d magically change it from flour to dough to bread. Toasted bread. And then feed her bits of it dipped in tea thickened with cookedContinue reading “From Flour, to Dough, to Bread”
Quote
Don’t fret, darling. Here’s your jar of honey. The bee that seemed to have been buzzing hurriedly was, in essence, never in haste to reach its flower to make it for you. Beisan A. Alshafei
The Woman who Hand-painted her Wall Indigo
When I was a student, there was a ravishing woman with peculiar thin Medusa hair whom I drove past every late morning. I stopped a couple of narrow town houses down from hers to throw my garbage out, where the garbage metal containers were all huddled near each other on a clearing made before aContinue reading “The Woman who Hand-painted her Wall Indigo”
You are Incredible
I promise you, I did not know I had all of these marks, which someone in a yesterday deemed to be beautiful, until you pointed them out with with a trace of a finger. “You are incredible”, you said, “I see you much better than you see yourself”. I giggled your words away, I thoughtContinue reading “You are Incredible”
Quote
A cure in tiny drops can be fatal in generous doses. Sometimes we intoxicate our minds too much, forgetting that we live within.
An Insomniac’s Morning Hours
When the call to prayer sounds and the sun’s about to rise, my thoughts restlessly dissect this sorrow, that guilt, old lies. “I can’t keep up”, I say, “slow down and stop the mumbling!” But they answer with obtuse eloquence, lingering, rolling, and tumbling. How lucky I find those people, who are right now asleep. Continue reading “An Insomniac’s Morning Hours”
Long Sentences on Short Flights
If I hadn’t cried that day at the airport by my flight’s gate with disconcerting openness, the mid-aged lady with the outrageously long acrylic nails and red flannel shirt tied around her waist would not have stared to then excuse herself from staring and amiably point out the mascara goop at the corner of myContinue reading “Long Sentences on Short Flights”
The Timeless Woman Who Gave in to Time
She heard it once from someone, she can’t remember who, that the day after you turn sixty-years-old you can actually see it physically. That person was right. Her left eyelid is drooping slightly more, and there it is, that liver spot grazing the side of her cheek right in front of her earlobe, today darkerContinue reading “The Timeless Woman Who Gave in to Time”
To Pour Out
… and then to just pour out of the cracked cup. Not from the rim like most people do – no – rather you’d be slowly tick tocking, drip dropping, out of the cup from the ruggedness of the crack. You won’t be so watery like most people are; you’d be thick like the consistentContinue reading “To Pour Out”
Beisan's Burble 