Your pain
Scars my blood
With a fire
Always smoldering
Your smile
Escapes
Their chains
To light up
My body
I sink
Into the darkness
Of your night
To drink it in
Heart in embers
I cross
Your night
I would like to hide myself in you chisel
time to the rhythm of your heartbeat
cover the rose in the sky with your sheet
I would like to sleep in your kiss not
wake up only dream in your night
I would like to be that dream hovering on your eyelashes
that destiny traced on your hand
I would like to divide myself and reside in
each hair on your skin
Watching you, I would like
to annihilate myself in you
From Songes d’une nuit berbère ou La Tombe d’épines. © Siham Bouhlal. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2016 by Emma Ramadan. All rights reserved.