Desire does not arrive as fire—
it comes quieter than that,
a draft beneath the door,
a shifting of air you cannot name
until the room feels altered
and you are already inside it.
It studies you first.
learns the angles of your restraint,
the careful architecture
of the words ‘no, not just yet,’
and then—
eventually, witnesses a fracture.
Not loud.
Never loud, just a soft splintering
somewhere
behind the ribs
where want begins to whisper
in a voice
that sounds like yours but isn’t.
It says: just once.
It says:
no one will see,
and suddenly the dark is not absence
but invitation—
a place where boundaries blur
like ink dropped into water,
where your reflection
loosens, becomes stranger, truer.
Your hands remember things
you swore you had forgotten–
and pulse writes its own language,
urgent, illegible,
pressing against the skin
as if it might
break through– because what you want
is no longer gentle.
It has edges now— not to wound,
but to hold,
to keep, to insist
that you stay
even as you recognize the cost
of staying.
Desire, at its darkest, is not about
having—
it is about the moment
you realize you would unravel yourself
just to feel
that pull a second longer.
Photo credits: Pinterest
Posted for Open Link Night (+LIVE) @dVerse Poets Pub
30 Responses
Ooh my!!! I am blushing. What romance and sweet lust are here! I especially love these words:
“ It says:
no one will see,
and suddenly the dark is not absence
but invitation”
Thank you so much, Lillian 😀 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
I will be reading this one on Saturday 😉
“…a soft splintering
somewhere
behind the ribs”
Yes.
Thank you so much, Ken 😀 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
A stunning poem, Sanaa, with internal rhyme in the very first line, a great line to pull me in, and something to make me gasp in every stanza, the ‘soft splintering somewhere behind the ribs’ and ‘a place where boundaries blur
like ink dropped into water’.
Thank you so much, my dearest Kim 😍 so glad you enjoyed it 💄❤️
Wow, this is just incredible, Sanaa. One of your finest. Just love it from beginning to end 💖
Very sensuous!!!
Much love
❤️❤️❤️
Thank you so much, Sunra 😀 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
The perfume of this is maximally feminine — a mirror’s consideration of that lover’s face gently, fragrantly, hesitantly encountering desire. The masculine cologne which pairs to this is a different concoction, all hearthammering erectile flourish, a mad parade of jostling halberds desperate for advantage, like a battlement of sperm seeking singular welcome from the bashful swoony egg. It would be interesting along the way to see you pair with another poet and elecit the fraught conversation there. Easier, of course, singing to the mirror. No doubt you do it most adroitly, elegantly.
Thank you so much, Brendan 🙂 so glad the poem spoke to you 💄❤️
as soon as i saw the title i knew i was done for. of course. pulse hearin my ears, sinking deeper into Being. so sultry. its shape and form at first, as the synchronicity builds and breaths pace each other, all that falls away and we lift each other up into more than we thought we could be. oh wow
Thank you so much, Eric 😀 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
“a draft beneath the door” oh my, that is perfect. “to feel that pull a second longer” yes! <3
Thank you so much, Jennifer 😀 so glad you enjoyed it 💄❤️
“the dark…an invitation” oh, my! Love. love, love this, Sanaa! Desire tiptoeing so sensually! 💖💖
Awww gosh! Thank you so much, Punam 😀 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
Oh!! So sensual and passionate! Wow!❤️
“and suddenly the dark is not absence
but invitation—
a place where boundaries blur
like ink dropped into water,”
Thank you so much, Merril 😀 I enjoyed writing this one 💄❤️
“and pulse writes its own language,
urgent, illegible,
pressing against the skin”
❤️
Thank you so much, Melissa 😀 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
An evocative and intimate exploration of desire Sanaa. Nicely done 👏
Thank you so much, Shaun 😀 so glad the poem spoke to you 💄❤️
Exquisite. My favorite bit was “a place where boundaries blur
like ink dropped into water,
where your reflection
loosens, becomes stranger, truer.”
Very nice.
Thank you so much, Christopher 🙂 so glad the poem resonated with you 💄❤️
Sensuous and beautiful Sanaa, most of all I love the observation – ‘it is about the moment’ yes indeed! A great poem!
Thank you so much, Paul 😀 so glad you liked it 💄❤️
Your use of language is so lovely Sanaa.
‘a place where boundaries blur
like ink dropped into water,’
It is always such a please to read your poetry out loud 🙂 <3
Thank you so much, Christine 😀 so glad you enjoyed it 💄❤️