A Madman who does not love me

Maisoon Saqr

A poet and painter, born in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. She has a Masters degree in Economics and Political Science from Cairo University (1981). From 1989 to 1995 she was Director of the Department of Culture in the UAE Ministry of Information and Culture. She has published ten collections of poetry. She has held solo exhibitions in Tunisia, Bahrain, Egypt and UAE, and in April 2002 held a major exhibition in Paris, France. She lives between Cairo and Abu Dhabi.

Her poem “A Madman who does not love me” was read by Australian writer and ACT Writers Center director Anne-Maree Britton.
I collapse into loss.
I say: I will move on.
Will you care for this sapling that wakes beside you?
Will you proceed through love toward it?
Which is your favourite, the henna flower or the lemon blossom,
the soul that is of you,
or am I born in the wink of your lips as they say “I love you”?
Have you said such a thing,
or do I hear it in dream?
I dance on a hand span of earth.
It will suffice me if ever I held this word
that leaps from lips toward the heart
and sleeps like a sparrow in the nest of its birth.
I long for your hands,
two doves that shade the blaze of my longing.
Do you too miss me, or do you not remember
the particulars of my voice?