forget-me-not

you say dear / coming down from the fig tree / i picked you the sweetest ones / & you say how can anyone not like figs? / but i cannot stand the melancholic aftertaste they leave in my mouth / we lay down in the afternoon & you tell me a story about horses / but i am too busy counting the freckles on your arms / i try to memorise the atlas before summer / i sit on the steps in front of the kitchen to tell you i know all of the countries now / except i don’t know them
the way you do / you say quick! what is the capital of yarra & laugh / the summer after i learn to sit down & watch you watch a war on television / you say be wise,
don’t rush
& your
brain undoes the
conversation
it takes me too long to
notice that the blue flowers
at the entrance are gone
it begins with misplaced glasses you
say dear dear
dear, do you know
this poem? i have known it
by heart for too long i
have known it by heart for
too long i have known it by
heart- until
someone breaks the cycle- i
love you remember, remember
always

Yara Ghunaim is an architect based in Amman. She holds an MRes (Art & Design) from Cardiff Metropolitan University and happens to write sometimes. Her work has appeared in BAHR magazine and is forthcoming in Sukoon.