Lena Khalaf Tuffaha: Dhayaa’

In my language
the word for loss is a wide-open cry,
a gaping endless possibility.
In English loss sounds to me like one shuddering blow to the heart, all sorrow and absence hemmed in,
falling into a neatly rounded hole,
such tidy finality.

In my language
the word for loss is a long vowel stretched
taut and anchored between behemoth consonants, reverberating— a dervish word
whirling on itself
in infinite emptiness
the widening gyre,
the eternal motion of grief.

Copyright 2017 Lena Khalaf Tuffaha. From Water & Salt published by Red Hen.

.

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha