white of her eyes, winter landscape
pupils, starless night
skin bare, the desert’s incorruptible honesty and

once
she tugged at my eyelashes drawing this gaze to the way a woman raised her eyes and
she pulled at my hair turning this head to see the moved and marked furniture and
she stole an earring so i might hear the sounds (un)natural and

often
she would whisper against my back to stiffen it and
she would lay hands on my stomach to turn it and
she would shred membrane of my heart to drop it and
she would flay skin so that I might crawl from it and
she would brush cold hands across breasts never allowing a moment’s peace and

every night
she would cross the threshold
crawl into bed uninvited
curling herself over me
pinning my eyes
turning my bed cold
whispering what i did not wish to know what i refused to see because

it would excavate cruelty and
shed light onto counterfeit and
rip apart familial webs best left dead and
savage the consent into my heart which I’d given and
erode memory of a necessary softness until

nearly three full moons when desperate
she found a corporeal home
turned her whispers into screams
proof. look at this. undeniable
warnings and

since
i beg her forgiveness for having turned away and
i thank her for her clarity of vision and
i ask her to come always and
i plead that she never dim her light and
i promise to never let her go unheard again.

– intuition | the female voice of Allah