Artwork by Lucy Maldjian @lucyindividual

This canvas of mine 

I will cherish it forever

It is unfathomed 

And pure

A dreamland like no other

The angles, the curves

The points in which my anatomy intertwines

Braided into the outline of a crooked bay

As if it was improvised

My organs have different stories to tell 

In the form of ailment and health

They try to overlook the affliction 

Engraved with timeless damage

A whole system can be brought down by a minor contradiction

But it never ceases to manage

My body shares unconditional warmth with another

A mutual intuition

Of love and content

And propels me into wishing

Language was secondary to touch

No stutters

Sewn into my favorite patched bodysuit

Of shreds I had to restitch over time from buried treasure 

And loose threads I play with for leisure 

I am constantly reminded that I belong to dirt

I find parts of me folded in whatever circumscribes me

Tough to measure 

The stardust flushing my skin

Takes me back to cold nights I spent under 

gleaming skies

The altitude of my nose bridge

Is the way I view heavenly mountain highs 

I stand in awe

As the tones on my sandy skin

Change from peachy on sunny days to bluish on others

With a simple shift of weather

The tears I’ve spent grieving for perfection

Permanence, and congruence;

I wish I could water earthy meadows with, 

once dry

My obsessions and irrationalities

Composed of the finest mysteries and questions

Are of the same energy that keeps the universe very 

alive

I keep on searching for the optimum 

The spectrum is a never-ending spiral 

Of change and adaptation

After untold trials

Harmony is my answer

It is what keeps me revived

Hela Shawa


Hela is a writer based in Beirut. Her love for analyzing social interactions and self-discovery drives her to tell stories through poetry. For Hela, writing is a constant challenge of forming an opinion, finding the right description, and finally letting it go on her writing Instagram account: @hela.writes, despite the uncertainty.


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