
Imagine a sunset
it’s seven o’clock
and the birth of night
is filled with cries of call to prayer.
The muezzin’s melodies sing to me;
I can’t understand what he’s saying
but I hear the feeling in his voice,
and I hum hum hum along.
Imagine a sunset;
red light bouncing off golden desert dunes
flooding the picture with red,
and I’m drowning,
swimming in the rose tinted world.
And I sit on a park bench.
Surrounded by strangers;
except the girl my mum tells me to stay away from.
Her curly hair bouncingwith every step
she takes.
She dances for us,
mostly for the boys;
she sways her hips along
to the song of her religion
and she pulls her top up
to show her midriff
And the boys call her haram.
We drag on Marlboro reds
and feel the sting of the nicotine
as we suck through lit cigarettes.
I ask if there’s booze-the general consensus is a no for now.
We’ll find some later,
or rely on Arabic herb to give us the rush we crave.
It doesn’t really matter to me.
I’ll get drunk on new found friendships.
Imagine a set sun
kissing only the horizon
and the rest of the sky is a
blanket of blue
lit up by the city lights.
It’s eight o’clock
and the night has moved on past
sucking cigarettes
and sipping energy drinks.
Now we’re sipping at
stolen vodka
and in between
the stolen sips
I chat to an American.
He talks away at me
about 90s slashers
and his dreams to direct one one day
and I pretend he will.
Imagine your first kiss with a girl;
my curly haired friend,
my hand stuck in the ringlets of her hair
we’re sat on a living room sofa,
nine o’three,
in a room full of friends
who, two hours ago were strangers.
We were tipsy on vodka and attention,
and decided to put on a show
so we could get drunk on the male gaze.
And we did.
My lips met with three more mouths
that evening,
thirsty for more, more, more attention.
Until I was wasted.
Imagine the first morning
back in school.
I was hungover from the attention.
Chinese whispers tiptoed across the hallway,
murmuring twisted truths
of what I had done.
Despite the rumours of fellatio,
there were
echoes of one-word bouncing off
lockers;
lesbian.