Leila Chatti,

What you love is what you hurt.
You cut the flowers to keep them close.
Standing in the yellow field, you blunted
the rain like a blade against your body.
You shattered the sun
when it returned.
A voice called to you, one
needful, one
you knew. Then
long quiet.

Long quiet:
you knew then,
Needful one.
A voice called to you once.
When it returned,
you shattered. The sun,
the rain, like a blade against your body.
Standing in the yellow field you blunted–
the flowers cut you when you got close.
What you love is what hurts you.

— Leila Chatti, “Idyll,” The American Poetry Review (vol. 51, no. 6, November/December 2022)