NEW MOON, NEW FLAME By Nada Faris

NEW MOON, NEW FLAME

Here we are again 
traveling to reunite 
our stories by candlelight. 

Our dead are grooming 
the dawn in the womb 
of the firmaments. 

On the arrival 
of the moon in Pisces, 
silver hair has grown 

above my eyebrows. 
Now this absolute night 
flashes. Eleganza full. 

Spotlights 
and standing ovations. 
Dance Cuban salsa 

with my shadow. 
This, here, is the choreography 
of fire. Let me hold you 

closer than our instinct to dream
into being, into the open 
melancholy of flesh. 

Feral of my heart, 
your script keeps echoing 
hunger and sheer solemnity. 

My voice your babbling rivulet. 
Your moans my shivering teeth. 
Crack the skin 

underneath green leaves. Listen
to the luminescent utterance: 
Amen, Amen. Our everlasting feast.

Nada Faris is a writer, teaching-artist, and performance poet based in Kuwait. She is an author of three international books, an Honorary Fellow in Writing at Iowa University’s International Writing Program (IWP) Fall 2013, and an alumna of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) April 2018, USA: Empowering Youth Through the Performing Arts. Faris is the recipient of an Arab Woman Award from Harper’s Bazaar Arabia 2018 in the category of Inspirational Woman for her impact on Kuwait’s creative sector. She has earned an MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in poetry and translation from Columbia University.