by Michal Mahgerefteh

I live in exile
     far from the sacred land
only the pen minces my accent
 
the thick salty layers of words
     lessen at times  I sample
droplets of pomegranate wine 
 
        Let there be Light!
 
within each scribbled word
     a logic interior   yowls and yawns
as it totters on tired limbs
 
amid the opaqueness of darkness
     a collage of karmic ghosts 
nameless  faceless thirsts for words
 
         Let there be Light!
 
no ear gave me blessing but the
     written word as it unveils and
inscribes phases into my Book of Life

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Michal Mahgerefteh is an award-winning poet and artist from Virginia. She is the author of four poetry collections, editor of Poetica Magazine and Mizmor Anthology, and the managing editor of Poetica Publishing. Michal is writing her next collection, FishMoon, forthcoming May 2022. This poem is from her collection Field of Harps (2016).

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