Perhaps, an unexpected prelude in a bookshop.
The scene shifted from airless humidity to fanned delight
and the ground slipped away like a thief in the night.
The spines sang of Ben Jelloun and Chekhov.
Traffic trickled sluggishly somewhere,
Beyond the dispersed tables and chairs,
Beyond colourfully displayed literature,
Some vaguely distant place but not here.
A smiling, dreamy discourse keeping its own time.
The voice's chirping lilt of joyfulness,
A gorged gabfest, its words gluttonous
and the moment motioned, pleasingly supine.
Then, the breath which caught you exhaled you;
irate taxi drivers and pollution smeared stress.
An Iris adrift on memory's surface recalling fulsomeness.
A wavering Waltz fading into blue.
Nayma Chamchoun
BIO:
Nayma Chamchoun is a British Moroccan, a self-taught writer and poet. Her writing is influenced by her cultural duality. She is interested in female voices in the diaspora community, the challenges they face within both communities and the taboos around mental health within their ancestral communities. Nayma is an active member of London's vibrant Poetry and Spoken Word community, the international Poetry community online and has performed her work at several Poetry Open Mike events including the Grenfell 5-year Anniversary and had her work featured on West Wiltshire Radio & BBC Radio London several times. Her published poetry collection COVID: THE WORDY WILDS OF A MIND UNDER LOCKDOWN is a cultural fusion poetry collection which explores themes of identity, duality, displacement, loss, race, feminism, culture, family, love and the search for inner peace as experienced alongside the effects of mental health, menopause, the pandemic and world events.
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