November 26, 2023 - Rahil Najafabadi’s “Circle of Hot Sugar”

My hands are burning from a hot scoop of sugar
that I’ve kept in my palm for you. It was a taste
of the sunrise in my possession, and then it was
gone. You never had it, and it was washed away,
but the circle of thoughts still burned about you.

Again, I gathered roses with my bareness and tore
my clothes keeping them away from my skin.
This time it was for me, breathing by the window
with an idea of tomorrow. No vase, any drop of water

the picture in my head is gone now, and it’s the same
as the desert with an abandoned car and a few cups
of tea. Some honey for my scar and a long sleep
to remember my own dream before I step into it
         in wakefulness.