Malak Mattar, Untitled (detail), 2024, charcoal on paper
Damage
“I’m bored too, believe me.”
That was how I spoke to you.
“My kingdom for a conversation!”
You were right, I had to be broken.
The one time I roused myself,
I strewed heather where we’d lain
bowered by a boyish-blue coverlet.
(Darling!) (Our soundtrack swelling—)
A littered bed. Litter, from the Latin for bed.
A kindle of rabbits. A stretcher for the dead.
Poetry
“I live out my life in the widening coils” by Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated from the German by David Keplinger
Poetry
