Power (Out)age

– Poem by Dua Al Bostani Al Fattohi –

Dreams are ravished in the dark.
But why would we care or cry?
No one told us they were ours.

Hell is the place where
everything comes in drops:
water…
electricity…
hope…
& dignity…
until we’re finally
flooded with nothingness.

I search and search in this darkness,
but I could barely find myself.

My withered basil bathes in
the moonlight of the balcony.
Outside our dark rooms,
she learns how to resist the cold.
She learns how death could be
the birth of her story.

***

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Dua Al Bostani Al Fattohi is a poet and English language teacher from Hama, Syria. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature. She writes poetry in both English and Arabic. Her work has appeared in harana poetry magazine, Ice Floe Press, and Pamenar Online Magazine, and Bad Lilies. Her poems in Arabic have appeared translated into both English and Italian in RIVISTA. She has been nominated for the 2021 Pushcart Prize.