You tuck your hair
behind your ear,
offer your mind
on a plate.
You ask clever questions,
argue for Nietzsche
and disregard Rothko.
You flick the ash
off your cigarette.
I stretch my legs
and kick off my shoes,
offer my heart up
to be torn.
I ask about empathy,
expressionism
and why Jefferson
included the pursuit
of happiness with liberty.
We sip our glasses,
pour the drinks,
laugh without restraint.
We're dubbed Becky
and Amelia,
and we take offense,
untuck our hair
slip on our shoes
and dance,
down past the chill
on the sidewalks.
Laala
Kashef Alghata is a home-based, twice-published
Bahraini poet and novelist. Her latest book, "Behind
the Mask: A Folded Heart" is a poetry and prose
collection, currently available on Amazon.co.uk.
Laala is the founder and editor of online poetry
and prose magazine, Write Me a Metaphor. Her poetry
is featured widely online; she is a poet-in-residence
at Soul to Soul, Argonaut's Boat and The Peregrine
Muse. Her work is also published in Argotist Online,
All Things Girl, La Fenetre, and Pens Of Fire, among
others.
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