Dania Baha Eldin

I remember the warmth of your hands,
	       before they forgot me.
Now I live inside this gold mouth,
	       un souffle suspendu.

Light bends, trembles on my skin.
	       The mirror opens
and I see myself twice,
	        je me vois deux fois, 
once in bloom,
	       once in stone.

Threads pull through my veins,
	       red for what I was,
		             blue for what remains.
Their tension hums
	       reflection, reflection.

I breathe without air,
	       بين النَّفَس والظِّل
a petal folded around its own silence.
	       stillness learning to pulse.

Listen 
	       even dust remembers the shape of touch.
My edges whisper like the sound of closing.

	       I’m not gone,
		              only mirrored.

Half of me waits in the glass,
	       the other half dreaming of bloom.
Rose / relic.
	      Souvenir / oubli.

Look 
	      I’m still here,
		            in the hush between breath and remembering.
	      Je suis encore ici. 


Translations: 
un souffle suspend: a suspended breath
je me vois deux fois: I see myself twice
بين النَّفَس والظِّل: between breath and shadow
Souvenir / oubli (noun): memory / forgetting 
Je suis encore ici: I’m still here