1

Don’t apologize
For an error
That leads me
To you

Go on

I promise
Not to lose the way
Twice to your heart

Whichever direction you take
My sweat
Guides me to you

2

I ripened                                                               
On embers
That drink in the horizon’s company

Blow on me…

All blue                                                              
Exposing its destiny                                            
To temptation

Diverse      
As the seasons
                                                   
Unique
Like my breast
When it succumbs                                         
To your palm

3

The more inaccessible I am                                                      
The more persistent you are                               

When I surrender
You give in to another

As if your faithfulness to me
Is a betrayal of yourself                               

4

My joy for you
Fills me                                                          
To aching

I fear me                                                                      
When I fall in love with an illusion                             
The truth of which you are                                           

I fear from you                                                           
A truth that would shatter my illusion

5

You perpetual                                       
Deserter

I engraved you
As faith
In my heart

6

You destroy and build me up                                    
You build me up and destroy me

Exalted         

Like an abyss

My splendour
In my disarray                            

7

A child you are
Chasing butterflies
And crying
When their colors
Stain your fingers

I am all the butterflies
If you burn one
Another rises up                                
From your ashes

8

Here I am
By the fireplace
A witness
To your burning                              

Here you are
In my entrails
A witness
To my desire

9

I dance
To the rhythm of your pulse    

Which are my fingers                      
From yours?                                  

10

I caress                                 
Your deadly stoop
On my weariness                                             

Life stands up                                                       
An elderly             
Longing for the beginnings                                  

Painful                                                              
Are the desires
When lavished
Like flames

On the prisoner of ash

11

With life you gamble
For the sake of a fleeting                             

Moment                                                       

When you haven’t yet
Left
My breast

12

You are now
On the verge of life

In me
About to die

Translation: Norddine Zouitni

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