Trans/substantiate

"in flowers. I am taking my body
beyond its shape." - Sanam Sheriff

I have resurrected the old

like the rising of the moon

after nights of fog.

I have drowned the face,

of the life that stole from me

the life I could've known. Resurrected the old,

I have let love deliver me

undefeated, naked

as a wealth of light in the night

set free from the constraints of dead

hands. I have burned the hands to ash.

Ash, I have memorized the face

of every triumph that

sang my only name. Blind,

I have escaped the cage

that I have come to disregard

for it is a cage that cannot constrain.

Just yesterday, my love

formed darkness

into a field of flowers,

on a day I did not believe

in flowers. My body is taking me

beyond my shape.