Malak Mattar, Untitled (detail), 2024, charcoal on paper
Composition
I have wanted to be married had
no place to rest a heart
never remarries once
it sinks in deep though I have tried
and wanted to induce it. Ergot
bring babies, MDA being inorganic
suffuses the soul. Incomparable light.
I tried dead to the world
forgive me dead
to you compare it. Loneliness
absence of a place
to rest. Repeated ly rest in my heart
you said. You did
in mine or yours flexible_ being
the attitude of rest. No ledge
to lean on still. I lie in fields
the sky clouds mountains luminous
shades of grey. Three days
I walk towards the sunset
its relief a promise. Keep.
Olga Broumas is the author of numerous books of poetry, including Beginning With O (Yale University, 1977) and Sappho’s Gymnasium (Copper Canyon, 2000). She is currently the Poet-in-Residence as well as the Director of Creative Writing at Brandeis University. (updated 6/2010)