As They Do by Laala Kashef Alghata

She hides behind the shattered fragments

of that golden lily

eating the pollen to survive,

licking her fingertips.

They left her (as they do)

perched on the tip

of a tree-branch

reaching for the ground

instead of the sky

hunting for the feeling

of something solid

underneath her feet

instead of reaching high

and realizing dreams.

She curls around herself

(she is her own parenthesis)

enveloped in the emptiness

and a shattered lily blanket

Laala Kashef Alghata is a twice-published poet and novelist. Her poetry and prose collection, Behind the Mask: A Folded Heart is avaliable on Amazon.co.uk. Her poetry is currently the focus of an exhibit in Clemson Arts Centre, SC. She has been featured widely online; she is a poet-in-residence in Soul to Soul, ArgoBoat and the Peregrine Muse and appears in Argotist Online, Pens on Fire and The Blotter. She is the founder and editor of online poetry magazine, Write Me a Metaphor. http://afoldedheart.blogspot.com/