BOUTHEINA BOUGHNIM LAARIF

BOUTHEINA BOUGHNIM LAARIF

CAPSULE

She thrust her wish into

A star-shaped capsule

Which she swallowed

With a glass of lemonade─

The oozing jasmine scent

Made her feel high;

Unseen fragrant molecules

Floated in the air,

Played with her hair─

A tear dropped from nowhere;

Perhaps a broken promise,

A wish fallen from the balance…

DAWN

The sky has eaten

Its confectioner’s sugar-topped crescent

And all the dark chocolate shards

Sprinkled over the cosmic silver salver…

The gigantic yawning mouth emits white light,

As it swallows quaffs of last night’s white noise,

Ghostly murmur muted for a while─

The haze will take some time to be lifted.

I stand on a hoary hill, ponder the perpetual show…

ARCTIC LOVE

I shall search for you

On polar pinnacles;

I could not freeze further…

I will be draped in white as a bride

Hurdling avalanches,

Sighing your name with blueish lips

And glassy, fixed pupils…

Wait for me for I shall come

Transfixed by our new home!

Love is a curse;

Infatuation is no better nurse!

THE WIND AND THE MANE

Once upon a time, the wind fell in love

With a lion’s magnificent mane.

It started running its fingers through

The golden hair and could not abstain…

The wind gave shape to this formidable frame

And the king’s head only grew saner:

Soothed by the wind’s titillating flirt

And leaned to the airy play

Which he by far he preferred to the taming quirt…

ROES

She rears roes in her eyes:

Glistening, voluptuous,

Hatching into pure glow…

ALOE

He often thought of her skin

As squashy aloe,

Floriferous rather than serrated…

The serumal sap, he craves,

But can only palpate,

Separated by the satin skin…

CRACKS

Her fingernails were two naughty kids

His skin could not resist…

Playing hide and seek,

Titillate the epidermis,

Spread the shudder

Across the rapt flesh.

Death can wait;

Cracks are on the moon.

BOUTHEINA BOUGHNIM LAARIF

Dr. BOUTHEINA BOUGHNIM LAARIF is a Tunisian Lecturer of English literature. She has published articles which focus on philosophical, aesthetic theories of poetic rhythm, Nietzsche’s theory of the lyric, Heidegger’s philosophy of art and politics, among which, Rhythm Reconsidered: Philippe Lacoue Labarthe’s Musical Poetics of the Subject, published in “Hearts and Minds” electronic journal (2014). She has published her first poetry collection entitled "Fractal Reflections" in 2015. She has also several poems published in the online weekly poetry journal, Dystenium Journal and in the quarterly poetry journal:The Cannon's Mouth and in two poetry anthologies.