tr by Hafsa Bakri Lamrani

As if an eye reached me with nostalgia
As if a hand tore my transparent intimacy
As if winds
Grew around my waist
And threw me whining

Here I am a plant
Quarrelling with the architecture of the wind
Here I am a shell
Writing the meaning of silence
Laughing in its secrecy
At the stupidity of words
Here I am
A cloud
Forlorn
Folding itself
On a bed of solitude
And disappearing
In the mirrors of nothingness

I fancy
Slitting my shadow
And quenching my thirst through my slits

I fancy
Following the sea
And imitating it

I fancy going
Far, far away
Drawing a heaven
That can bear forgetfulness
A balcony
That can bear absence
Words
That can bear
Being erased

I fancy leaning my head
On a pillow of dew
And letting Truth flow

Touria Majdouline is a Moroccan poet, writer, and professor at the college of arts and humanities, Mohammed V University, Rabat. Former Secretary-General of the Moroccan National Commission for the UNESCO, and a political and social activist, she is also a founding member of the Association for Creative Women in the Mediterranean countries, as well as a member of the advisory board for the Lebanese review Manarat. She has published seven books of poetry and two critical studies, as well as numerous political and intellectual articles in national and Arab newspapers and reviews.