They call me ‘Mimi’

In the hours of delirium;

And they love my eyes

That point to the azure sky

And my voice….home-like,

….pure,

Spring gave me to May

And I was born

Then I was ordained,

Now I am a priest.

Now my name is….

And my light wings carry me

Away from the Convent

to the foreign lands.

I love to see this

Laughing Nile

chaste, azure,

and I bathe my eyelashes,

my heart,

my golden forehead.

*

1911

 by May Ziadeh

A Lebanese-Palestian poet, private tutor and public speaker, essayist, novelist, editor, and translator.