Wall
By Mohja Kahf
Your heart is a wall on which I knocked
looking for a door, a latch
a windowsill, a flowerpot
Everything I brought to the wall dried up
and blew away for lack of answer:
tulip bulbs, my worry for you, some children
Sometimes I pounded it with my fists
smashed my forehead on it
blamed myself for not having the passcode
hated myself
hated hating myself—started over
willed patience, got advice
cried in a heap against its brick
without getting a stir
so many night-after-nights
It’s a wall.
There is no way in.
Now that I’ve made the choice to leave
your heart suddenly has a gate
You fling it open for the first time
but I’m gone
Copyright Credit: Mohja Kahf, "Wall" from My Lover Feeds Me Grapefruit. Copyright © 2020 by Mohja Kahf. Reprinted by permission of Press 53, LLC.