Written by: Manal Rabiey
I miss you…
But don’t teach me how not to miss you.
I’m not seeking salvation from you—I long to be lost in you.
Take me the way fire takes a dry leaf,
the way intoxication seizes a lover’s mind for the first time.
Let me melt into a kiss until my body craves your breath.
Let me vanish on your lips—and never return.
—
I want you to open your chest to me the way the sea opens to the wind.
Let me bury my face in you,
spell out your features with my fingers,
shut the world behind me, and enter you.
Let me dwell between your ribs,
breathe through you,
become part of your skin,
wear you the way lungs wear air.
—
I don’t want a fleeting love.
I want you to be an earthquake that rearranges my cells,
a tremble in my depths,
a gasp that never quiets.
I want you to be an endless story,
to be all the men in one,
and for me to be every woman—for you alone.
—
Take me…
And never leave me as I was.
Recreate me into something born of you,
a woman who knows no homeland but your arms,
no shelter but your mouth,
no life… except when you touch her.
