Your words scissored beneath the hum of the fan

you came and went with a wish, and with your name

and the whisper of your veil in the lifeless air.

Insha’allah she will come again. That is what I wished.

I sat still as a mouse cornered behind the stove,

in my tiny way aware it was my final moment,

quivering at the shrunken distance between us,

knowing one word from you would kill me–

knowing that no word from you would kill me.

Can other men look you in the eye?

You are a wish, you are also everything.

I give you the power to be everything.

I wish you breezes in orange evenings.

and the kisses that cannot be counted,

each one a jewel, each jewel a word.

I wish you years of tearless passion

and love when it comes, under a fan

or on the banks of the Nile, an undivided

beauty. That is what I wish.