This Gown
Now if I wear this gown
my hair in this scarf
sleeves to my wrists
And skirts to the floor
Then know that underneath,
Where my thin body waves
I am quiet
with my god.
And if I am not humbly but boldly covering my body
From the legacies of a thousand penises
Entering what was stripped bare
Then a thousand skirts around my navel
And a thousand fists to the sky!
Beneath this scarf my hair is shining
And my breasts are bursting full with milk
I am alone with no one in this tent of homage
To a world without mirrors
And a kunt which hasn’t been pried open
By a thong, by a video or a tampon
By a child of an accident
Which involved eyes and then conquest
My galabaya leaves no clues
As to the shape of my body
We Arabs are imaginative
We see the moon in everything
If I have deceived you I apologize
I shine like a candle on snake skin
I move like the old world
The sand my habib
I’m louder than the ocean
Inside these waves of cloth
So if I wear this gown forgive me
I run slower than I had to
To leave your prying fingers
As if I hadn’t noticed
How much you want me
to take it off.
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