Distant

GB

This was not worth coming out in the rain.

You tell me about your work as an attorney, defending investment banks and hedge funds.

From whom?

The government.

Oh, right.

I want to break the lip of the wine glass between my teeth just to have something to do.

You soft man, with your voice too hard to hear in this hot bar, and your constant allusions to being too old to have fun:

Have you ever bitten into a rare steak and sucked the juice through your teeth until the meat is dry […]

Donna J. Gelagotis Lee

Feeble dogs are licking my name

in the dirt. They are taking on

personas. I feel a bark rising

in my throat. I sense a pack / pact

mentality. I want to stalk and

circle, cower, and whimper. I want

to chase and pull with my teeth.

I want to lick myself, smell my own

cleanliness, smell others and tell of their

intentions. If I come up to you and nip,

will you kick / kiss me? Will you yell /

yelp? I feel my hairs matted down, my

tail / tale starting to wag. I don’t lag /

lack ambition, […]

Aida Bardissi

(iii) عودة

عودة إلى الحب // return to love

i am a passport; a blood orange. i want to sit in your back pocket; an imminent stain;

let’s make up (out) a border & call it a nation — PEEL ME OPEN

ya 7obbi, let the pith of me perfume your skin; Andalusian ancestor;

i want to exist with you in a time before bodies knew flight; knew paper 

knew knew knew how to eat                   […]