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Non-terminal

By Fady Joudah

No shards

where one is bound to no place in the first place


all shards
we were clear on that from the beginning


Absence is always sudden to hear your voice
once more more


echo than shrapnel qualia of the forbidden

transforms itself into wounds regenerates
a hydra or lizard tail


touch me
I’m alive again


there isn’t enough time or proximity
for your essence or mine          to vanish

we’ll remain
fire and ice who turn to glass

that doesn’t shatter

mercury
if it shatters

Poet Bio

Poet Fady Joudah

Fady Joudah is a Palestinian American physician, poet, and translator. He was born in Austin, Texas, and grew up in Libya and Saudi Arabia. He was educated at the University of Georgia, the Medical College of Georgia, and the University of Texas Health Sciences in Houston. In 2002 and 2005 he worked with Doctors Without Borders in Zambia and Sudan, respectively. Joudah lives with his family in Houston, where he works as a physician of internal medicine.

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