Incantation from the Betrayed Lover

Please surprise me. Surprise me,

make me hold my breath again,

then appear without the ghostly edges

of a mirage. Squeeze between my lashes with light.

Give me something to compare to our past.

Or let this stone I’ve swallowed

sit lower in my body

comforting. Let it root.

Grow into a halfway house for my heart.

Farnaz Fatemi