How can you live and leave in a breath as the door closes I too am broken red upon tongues of red. If you dream of water of your portrait as the wound that is also a house If Hell is lost, I will not disappear We will go to cafes and read each other quietly to survive, and I will remember you not with my eyes but with the passing of silence between two flames. It is the first day of your life as my imminent bruise, I who has dreamt of escape, who with a flash in my throat has swallowed my own life like a roll of film white like the sun touching me to touch you with my shadow, and I am brought back I am made of doors, and doors upon doors, upon the blackness after them, once, I have forgotten your silence is a language of its own.
Rome Smaoui is a Tunisian poet and writer. Her work has appeared in Narrative Magazine, Sonder Midwest, The Roadrunner Review, and other places. Her writing has been recognized by the Scholastics Art & Writing Awards, and the 2019 Faulkner Wisdom Competition. In 2021, she was featured in Narrative Magazine’s 30 Under 30 List. She is currently completing her undergraduate studies in Literature & Creative Writing at The University of Manchester.