Elements

Water
I scratch its surface with my fingers
Disturb its sleeping memory
Then sculpt it into mirrors

Sky
I build it with sheets of silk
And strings of a broken violin
Then shape it into a dome

Wind
I play it in D Minor like a piano concerto
I bend it, fold it
Knead it with bread

Sun
I hide it in my treasure box
Braid its rays to make a quilt
For the seasons of ice

Moon
My mother’s face
I shatter it to make lanterns
To strangers in blackout cities

Stars
I sow them
In my womb
They grow into fields of wheat

Rain
I make rosary beads from its drops
Carry it in my bags
To quench my thirst

Light
Is where the lotus blooms
I pour it in my dark grottos
Carve it into statues

Marble
I touch it, it groans
Its gray veins shrink and bleed
Fermented smoke

Wounds
Scented peonies in a garden’s fence
Broken church icons
I heal them to create a body

Time
The distance between two heartbeats
I crucify its hours
Make an incision in its tissues

Language
Cocoons on my fingertips turning into butterflies
Ink leaks from my pores
Embroidery on white paper

Poet
A suspended star between dream and reality
A stray gazelle
In the forest of the alphabet

– Imen Benyoub

Author: Jamie Dedes

Jamie Dedes is a Lebanese-American poet and free-lance writer. She is the founder and curator of The Poet by Day, info hub for poets and writers, and the founder of The Bardo Group, publishers of The BeZine, of which she was the founding editor and currently a co-manager editor with Michael Dickel. Ms. Dedes is the Poet Laureate of Womawords Press 2020 and U.S associate to that press as well. Her debut collection, "The Damask Garden," is due out fall 2020 from Blue Dolphin Press. View All Posts