There’s too many tongues –

fire and water – waves of both

in threatening ability to consume.

Show me who you are – skeletons

grabbing clouds – your water,

a massive ocean subsiding

into placid lake; my fire meets

your erecting mountain – liquid

and ascending – muscular rocks

alluding to unchained passages.

My ferry is burning coal, slender

like ribbons of heat transiting

ghosts without coins. You are

the rubble rocking in ripples

every attempt to walk barefoot

down your chest of rhapsody;

the ebbing of mercurial tides,

my embers writhing like tongue

severed from throat. This definition

of love between two stark elements

is earth in consummation – storms

of upheaval – fire enveloping water;

the surge to smother abject,

the desire to drown unfulfilled.

Sheikha A is from Pakistan and United Arab Emirates. Her works appear in a variety of literary venues, both print and online, including several anthologies by different presses. Her poetry has been translated into Spanish, Greek, Arabic, Polish Italian, Albanian and Persian. More about her can be found at sheikha82.wordpress.com