The stars will call again

by Hamdi Hussein

I come home late last night,

the stars are too lonely to ever let me go

So it is a wonder I’m even here and

you can blame me all you want

but maybe the bling reminded me

too much of the jumble of our

laughs before the time when we first met,

maybe that’s why I stay until

the morning sun dampens my shirt and

I forget how to watch out for low-flying planes

or Something,

but when I check my phone

and see five calls I fail to pick up,

I walk backward all the way home

to an ensnared sense of reality,

and if I see out of the corner of my eye

your car parked four houses down my street,

I keep it to myself and smile without

the lights on for once, and

I think to myself

Today i will be in love again,

as I leave a trail of love stains on your collarbones

and our breath swirled together like petals  in an old cup,

you once said  "Red is your colour", and I remembered

it better than any a prayer I’ve ever been taught on my knees

so I reapplied that same shade on my lips for merging days,

and you can blame it on my faith,

but when I see three discarded wine glasses

I can’t help to fix a stare across my face because

I know that you know I don’t go back for seconds,

And maybe you do, maybe that’s why, yes that must be

but I also know that you can’t tell venetian lipstick from the

deep cherry gleam coating the sides of two of the glasses,

so despite my pursed lips bruised ,

I tell myself

Today I will love again;

although I can no longer feel the indent on your side of the bed

and I have forgotten the weight of your words in my mind,

if the stars start calling out to me once again

I know not to call back too soon

and it’s not too easy, because I know there is

no more air to puff or huff, so it’s only logical

that I should steal one second with them,

but I will pull my curtains close

because I know that

Today I will be in love alone,

and maybe it's not as horrible as it sounds.