2 Poems by Nora Selmani

Photo by Seth Doyle

celestial body

i am like the moon

no

i am the moon

waxing

a big moonsmile waxing

in the sky

or

a cosmic mirror

a quivering cyclopean eye

rounder than its orbit

in the sky

my silvery light is shining

gilding all nocturnal things

my silvery light is burning

swallowing up the night

sailing

we are standing at the bow of a red boat turning loosely in the wind

which whispers honeyed nothings into the patient cups of our ears

then quietly curls into the grey foam.

the sea is otherwise calm transparent like murano glass

blues scintillate on our faces / choreographing a cerulean waltz

i feel this and cannot see it, eyes wet with maudlin dreaming

we glide into the amniotic fold of the wave, allowing the saltwater to claim us

churning ancestral baptism delivering us to mother before mother

Nora Selmani is Arts co-editor at Porridge and is currently studying for an MA in Comparative Literature at King’s College London. Her interests include gender, nation, diaspora, and food and she edits Porridge’s COMFORT FOODS segment. She is the author of the pamphlet Portraits (Lumin, 2018) and her work has appeared in O GOCË, Dear Damsels, and Vagabond City Lit, amongst other publications. She tweets @arbnoraselmani.