I long for you like a day without you is long.
I long for you like kissing lovers long for breath,
I long for you like time longs to progress,
Like the seconds long to vanish, to die.
My longing for you stretches the spans,
The distances that separate us.
It blankets, wraps, coils around us.
My longing for you brings me ever closer to you.
My longing for you takes my heart and your heart
And marries them.
My longing for you turns my initial sadnesses
Into rejoicing for having such a lover.
Longing for your lips thus reassures me
That you were, are, and ever will be mine.
I long for you with the fervency of the sun.
I long for your name to be spoken,
For my ears to welcome it in, put at ease by its mention.
I long to fall asleep with you, on your neck.
I long for you like I long for Neruda or Qabbani,
Like I long for the land I call home,
Like I long for heaven,
You, my eyes, my life.

| Permanent Link

I never meant to kiss you--
I never mean to.
It was all accidental,
A wonderful plan
Of a phenomena.

All of the stars
Galaxies
Planetscometsnebulae
Pushed me,
Thrust my lips
Ontoyours.

We kiss because nature cannot otherwise
Maintain equilibrium.

Thus each of our kisses
Savestheworld.

Each of our kisses aligns the stars
And keeps all of the planets
Inharmoniousmotion
Around you, Ell.
Around us.

When we kiss.

| Permanent Link

When we lie in our hammock
And intertwine,
The yellow of our woven home
And green of the rustling canopy
And blue of the buoyant sky
And white of the beatific clouds
And brown of the meek earth
All turn to fulgent red
When we kiss.

| Permanent Link

I loved you kissing the rain off my chest
When I stood there in the rainstorm
And my hair was wet
And my shivers were so obvious.
I loved you kissing my collarbones
When the lightning danced around us
And we were alone,
And all of heaven fell on us.
I loved you telling me
That you love me more
Than the rain in the afternoon.

| Permanent Link

If ever I do not say it
The trees get angry
And hiss and whisper
Urging me excitedly to say
I love you.

| Permanent Link

I want you like a child
I need you like a child
I fear you like a child
I kiss you like a child
I love you like a child

| Permanent Link

In your presence I discover
That I am a child,
That I need to be nourished
By your hand,
That without your lullabies I am
Incapable of sleep.
If you shall sing me to sleep
Every night
I shall give you all of the kisses
My lips can conjure up--
Nay, my lips themselves shall
Be yours.

| Permanent Link

Your freckles are oases for my nomadic fingers
On the desert of your skin,
And water wells for my caravan lips,
Trading in kisses and passion.
I want to dwell on them,
Each one for a year,
Until I am old
And ripe with love.

| Permanent Link

I want to drink you in.
Drop by drop--
Not all at once.
Not altogether.
No. Just--
Slowly, tantalizingly.
First, your eyes.
Then your nose,
Then, your mouth.
And once I've quenched
All of my thirst,
I'll kiss all of those things
Right back on.
I'll kiss your ears,
Your chin,
Your neck,
Your mouth.
Your mouth.
I'll linger there for some time.
Quite a bit of time.
And last of all,
I'll kiss your eyes back.
And I'll thirst once more.
I'll thirst for you once more.

| Permanent Link

The rain is hard
On our skin
As we run
And breathe it in,
And when we stop
I kiss your spine
And tell you "Woman,
Just be mine!"
In your beauty
You're still there
With your bright eyes
And soaking hair,
And ever will
Your allure be
Emblazoned on
My memory.

| Permanent Link

Only the street lamps see us tonight
As we sit out of sight, hidden
In the darkness, and your chin rests
On my shoulder, and love let's kiss
Tonight, for the first time, and bliss will
Be ours forever--until our lips
Are parted--and your hips carry
You into a hurried goodbye.

| Permanent Link

Paint me a canoe lying on the sand
Waiting for me to take your hand
And push out into the peaceful sea
And there as lovers we shall be
Alone, except for the salty breeze,
Our kisses shall span eternities
And measure all the depths of time,
And we'll take Pablo for his rhyme,
And love, we'll forget all our scars
And stay all night and watch the stars.

| Permanent Link

I could live on your neck, forever.
There, where my kisses can wander freely,
Where I'd sleep all night on your collarbones.

My thoughts escape me as I sit here
And they go to you,
They long for skin.
They look for passion.
They find it only on your neck.

So all I can write, think, breathe,
Is the fragrance of your neck,
And my love for you roams all night
Between my heart and yours,
Between my mouth and yours.

There on your neck I left
A trail of kisses to mark my way
Back to you,
I left my blood, my tears,
The tears of my whole life.
I left the tears of all my prayers.
I left the anger of my pining
For you, I left the scent
Of spit, Of sweat, of faint perfume,
Of all the intimacy we command
In our dark kisses.

| Permanent Link

As we lay by the sea
Our joy is a burning passion.
If I don't seize my opportunity
A ghastly figure--Time--
Will forever steal you from me.
So let's not neglect our love
Making this moment last(s) forever.

| Permanent Link

We are not lovers, nor shall we,
My lady, love as we might, ever be.
For you are to me a whisper,
A moment,
A vapor,
A glance,
A drop.
But on your own,
A beautiful clamor,
An endless eternity,
A violent current,
A steadfast gaze,
A wondrous ocean.

| Permanent Link

I hate your feet--
They take you far from me.
I hate your eyes
That cannot hide our secret.
I hate your smile
That tells the world our lie.
I hate your hands--
They always have to let go of mine.
I hate your back,
I hate it with a passion,
For it teases me as you leave,
And when you're gone I can no longer
Kiss it.

| Permanent Link

Lady, you are the poet,
I am just the hand.
You are the goddess,
I am just a man.
Yours is the beauty,
Mine the feeble lines.
And yet my love, they say
That the poem's mine.

| Permanent Link

Breathe my breath.
Breathe me in
Like a desperate lover.
Let's pretend that I'm
Your first male;
That you're my first female.
Let's pretend that we
Are innocents,
And ignorant.
Let's pretend that
I'm your first lover,
That before me you knew no one,
And that before you I was yet
Unborn.

| Permanent Link

I love you more
Than I ever loved them
Any of them.
I love you more than
I ever loved then.
You, my favored lover.

| Permanent Link

Your kiss is a fresh breath I long to taste,
Your scent is a fog, a cloud surrounding me,
Your hair is the forest I dwelt in during my youth,
Your skin is the home I come to in the dark,
Your mouth was the bridge I crossed between youth and manhood.
Your spine is the trail I traced in the dark to find true love.

| Permanent Link

I believe in God,
So it would be blasphemous if
I worshiped your eyes.

| Permanent Link

Close your eyes and dream of us
As we shall never be
Close your eyes and listen to the whispers
Of your dreams
Close your eyes and sleep in lands
Long given to the moon
Close your eyes - the rising sun
Will be here very soon
Close your eyes and think of our
Farewells that last too long
Close your eyes and I will sing
To you one final song
Close your eyes and retrace all
The steps that we have trod
And as you close your eyes love me
For those who love know God

| Permanent Link

On your back,
You turn your head away,
Your chin raised,
Your neck an addiction,
Your collar bone arresting,
As we grow closer,
Ever closer,
And your hands clenched,
Your nose scrunched,
Your whispers heavy,
Declare the moment
(you bite your lip)
When eternity stands still
And we being one
Become everything.
(nothing outside of our radius exists)
And suddenly we know
That satisfaction.
(temporary, only temporary)

| Permanent Link

Your kisses are corrosive.
Curious.
Spurious.
Scintillating.
Fascinating.
Your kisses are corrosive.

| Permanent Link

Your love like snow covers me,
All of me.
You blanket me and I cannot,
No I cannot resist.
And nothing is left that is not
Engulfed in love.
Your love like rain drenches me,
Yes all of me.
I can't escape your waters,
Your love currents.

| Permanent Link

I love your notional cheek,
I love our kissing games,
I love your hair in rain,
I love our singing voice,
I love your aching knees,
I love our silences.

| Permanent Link

You kissed me with all the foolish innocence of a child.
You kissed me with all the curious passion of a child.
You kissed me with all the wanton intensity of a child.
I kissed you with all the painful memories of an old man.
I kissed you with all the heavy baggage of an old man.
I kissed you with all the unspoken hesitancy of an ancient man.

| Permanent Link

I will not legitimize our love
By mourning you,
Nor will I ever remember how
You smelled while we danced,
Or how you squeezed my hand
On our long beach walks,
Or how you placed your fingers
Around your coffee cups,
Or how you ate your ice crea.
Your smiles, your songs, your simpleness,
Are long forgotten.
As is our nonexistent love.

| Permanent Link

I am beyond being in love with you,
I'm at the point of worship,
And you not deserving such adoration
Fractures my heart to a point I can't understand,
Or accept. And your silence,
Your muted explanations,
Only insult my intelligence,
Only drive me deeper into madness,
So stop your hateful ignorance,
And simply focus on loving me.
Or else, stop being my muse.
Be dead to me, and never
Let me remember you
Or write for or of you
Ever, ever again.

| Permanent Link

Come, love me.
Don't shy away.
Just dive in.
Just love me.
And if you ever have any doubts
Or any fears
Just turn the lights off.
Let's love by feeling,
By touch, by our most receptive
Sense to passion.
Come, let's forget
Previous fears,
Fracted sentiments,
Memories not worth dwelling over,
Not while we love.

| Permanent Link

You turn your head
And guide my kisses to your neck.
The warmth of our bed is a shelter
For indescribable passions.
Your red lips are a clear target,
Your lipstick perfectly imperfect,
Your eyes looking away,
Rarely meeting mine,
But when they do, you whisper
Your love to me.
I kiss your palm and wait,
Mesmerized for a moment by your eyes,
Then I bite your chin as we dance
The dance of ancient passions,
As we make up the steps
To this ceremony we never learned.

| Permanent Link

I closed my eyes and waited but you did not kiss me.
Your lies break my heart.
I'm torn apart
By all the times you've left and did not miss me.
Late in our evenings, love, while we were laying
Near one another
I discovered
I did not care for anything that you were saying.
We're falling and falling further and farther
Out of love, my love.

| Permanent Link

| Permanent Link

It seems the lines have been erased between us,
Lines have faded as we have shared the time
Together. We were never meant to be
Closer than what we started out hoping to be.
But we've eclipsed all of our dreams,
We've outdone innocent desires.
We slipped.
We fell.
And I want to go back, to return to newness.
To return to newness.
That's all I want.

| Permanent Link

Numb to your smile which pained me when you smiled it,
Numb to your presence, in which you torture me with consummate ease,
Numb to hearing the nicknames you once called me lavished on others,
Numb to the memories once triggered by my dreams.

| Permanent Link

I don't need your mouth, but I want it.
More than anything, I want your mouth.
Put out your cigarette, the smoke makes
Me cough after kissing you.

| Permanent Link

I can imagine sitting with you on a bench on the banks of a small river in some small European town, in the shade of large trees, with the breezes playing with the leaves all around us, and the river running through playfully in front of us. I can feel exactly what we're feeling, as you're lying on the bench, with your legs propped on one arm of the bench, and your head in my lap. I feel my fingers in your hair, and my right hand on your chin. My thumb slightly covers your lips; I can feel them move as you talk. We spend hours in conversation, as people walk behind us speaking a language we don't understand, marveling at our love. Your eyes meet mine often; I see the love bursting from them, those beautiful eyes that I can never forget, or get out of my head. I recite poetry to you, Arabic poetry that I've known since childhood, and you laugh as I try to translate every word, struggling as poetry can never be perfectly translated. You are tanned, no doubt after a few days of swimming on the beach. Children laugh all around us, and a dog barks; the village is peaceful, and the scenery perfect, like our love. We have no computers or phones or passports, we have no identity but one another. We have nothing that identifies us other than each other's love. We know nobody within ten thousand kilometers, yet everyone is welcoming because they see how we love. Everyone can see me laugh as you stand up and put on a show, so entertaining, playing with your skirt, hands on your hips, and feet on the grass, near the water. I stand up to dance with you, humming, and you start singing the words to the song, as we dance, clumsily, a dance with no steps or rhythm; a dance based on love. We stumble and fall on the grass; your hair in your face, my laughter so loud, your skirt becomes wet in the water. We crawl back up the slight slope,closer to the bench, on our elbows and back, staring in the air. You tie your hair back; it's amazing how many styles you can fix it in, and you ask me which one I like, trying three or four different ones. I can't ever decide how you should wear your hair... You're always beautiful, no matter what. As the sun starts setting, we start walking back to our hotel, holding hands, still talking, but the talk becomes more serious as the streets get emptier and the sky darker. You get chillier because of your wet skirt, and I give you my jacket to wear around your waist. We go up small stairways and down quiet sidewalks, the constant breeze our only companion, as it flits through your hair. Our steps are flirtatious as we finally get to the hotel. Ours is room 16, we walk up a few steps, and enter through the old wooden door. I open the creaky door for you, you glide inside so elegantly, and I lock us inside.

| Permanent Link

We cross invisible lines whenever we're alone,
Imaginary lines never meant to be crossed,
Into distant, uninhabited worlds,
As darkness surrounds us, and the silence
Only briefly interrupted by your sounds of love,
Spurs me on into the forbidden, or the frowned upon.
In that strange land, where only lovers exist,
We remain foreigners, unless
I am kissing all of your spine,
Unless you are whispering a pleasure
Understood from ancient times,
A pleasure sacred since the ancient times,
As my fingers run through your hair
Until exhausted, we collapse
Back into reality.

| Permanent Link

Star gazing with you is a dream I can't control,
Like the tide of emotions rising when I see your eyes,
Like the current of your scent, taking me away from shore,
From safety. From my world, and into
Yours.

| Permanent Link