untangle me recklessly, lace tongue
till my truth leaves a trace on your tongue.
remember how you parted; sweet lips
silken on the embrace of my tongue.
caressing those rounded syllables,
understanding the space(s) of our tongue(s).
your letters ripe like pomegranate,
honeyed with glacé: sticky tongue!
you taste like a forest of nettles,
stinging. oh brace for it my dear tongue.
sliced sibilance. plucked plosives. blood bath.
ghusl springs pace the stream of my tongue.
I swallowed bitter ink. Reviving—
sufi saints dance with grace on my tongue.
teething surahs and twirling sounds,
hums like to relay race on my tongue.
bend light, bent light. bend down, bent now.
come, there’s place to prostrate on my tongue.
you know to let my words flower and
taste the delicate buds of your tongue.
abeera, ribbon the bittersweet
‘ghazal’. encase it for naïve tongues.