I Will Be Satisfied

 
 
 



I Will Be Satisfied



  I will never be satisfied

  Until you flood me like the Nile floods the plain

  Until your arms become Babylonian lions and devour me raw

  Until you scale me like the Temple of the Feathered Serpent 

  And I will never be satisfied



  Until you cast yourself into the fire

  And its flames are cool and safe for you because of me

  Until you break the chains of impossibility

  And slay the beast of doubt like oxen sacrifice

  At the altar of the Holiest of Holies



  Until I see my face in all your writings

  Until my name enters all your words 

  And you adorn and crown yourself with me

  Love me—love me—love me—love me—

  And I will be satisfied



~ From Mohja Kahf’s unpublished love poetry manuscript written in 1999.

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Mohja Kahf  is a Syrian-American poet and novelist.  Her first collection of poetry, E-mails from Scheherazad, evokes the mixture of pride and shame involved in being an “other,” with characters balancing on the line between assimilating and maintaining the habits of a good Muslim.  In addition to contemporary Muslim women, Mohja’s poetry also explores figures from Islamic history including Hagar, the wife of the prophet Abraham, Khadija and Aisha, wives of the Prophet Muhammad, and Fatima, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad.  According to The New York Times, her writing on contemporary subjects “draws sharp, funny, earthy portraits of the fault line separating Muslim women from their Western counterparts.” Of the intersection of Islam and art, Mohja says: “One of the primary messages of the Qur’an is that people should recognize the beautiful and do what is beautiful. This is not simply a moral beauty but a visual and auditory beauty as well. Conduct should be beautiful, writing should be beautiful and speaking should be beautiful.”