we did not hold hands
often we clenched legs
under the table

hands were too public
for two who did not know
how feelings socailize

we sat on a bench
on the corniche
watching the nile at noon

it was full and calm
we could hear the wind sing
to the trees on its sides

you held my hand
and I looked
as you took it towards you

the wind stopped singing
and my heart wanted
to come out and taste the water

I said look how my hand
looks no matter
how many times I wash it

you said look how mine
sweats and then asked
if it bothered me

I held your wrist
and folded your hand
and brushed it with mine
again and again
until it is my hand that is wet

you smiled and looked down
happy and shy like a bird
folding into itself

I asked you for a kiss
I could not say it
I wrote it in a notebook
you once wrote your name in

words were too intimate
for two who did not know
how love talks

the notebook became
a pigeon back and forth
between us it held words
our mouths dared not admit

you wrote a falouka
is where you get one
you knew the nile
had none that day

no one teaches a girl
how to want
without bruising
the family name

so you swallowed it
and it bloomed somewhere
I could not reach

and I loved before
I had the language
then it came in a dialect
I had to translate for myself

so I spat it out
and kept the bitter ache

I would go through
your things
and asked about them

I claimed to get to know you
better through the small and ordinary
to break what ice may be left

you said I know
but I secretly hoped
I would be mistaken
for your watermelon lipstick
and go home with you

but you went home
and I stayed

I pass by the bench
and ask it why
are you still here
it says nothing but I hear
echoes of your laughter

so I sit and watch
the nile full and calm
but the wind no longer sings
it just blows
and I get cold easily nowadays
but I wait
a falouka might pass

————————————–

Muhammad Rabih called us from Egypt.

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"Untitled" by Muhammad Rabih

Poetry via voicemail. Missed calls you need to hear.

Open submissions accepted.
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"Untitled" by Muhammad Rabih

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