Each and every object in my drawers has a story of its own. 
When I revisit the selves I once was, minute black silhouettes 
Align themselves over the power lines of my mind as on a score 
Until the outline of an alter ego irrupts, adding a silent note. 

When I revisit the selves I once was, minute black silhouettes 
Rub over every object’s skin absorbing smells and vibrations
Until the outline of an alter ego irrupts, adding a silent note. 
And would they engage in a dialogue in the utmost darkness?

Rub over every object’s skin absorbing smells and vibrations
Like the rosary stringed with pearls my mom loved so much.
And would they engage in a dialogue in the utmost darkness,
Map the vestibules of memory, run fingers over shining veins?

Like the rosary stringed with pearls my mom loved so much, 
Boxes of left-over yarn, her crocheted creations tucked into drawers 
Map the vestibules of memory, run fingers over shining veins.
Call it a bric-a-brac fit for those of us prone to engage in bricolage. 

Boxes of left-over yarn, her crocheted creations tucked into drawers, 
A bleached sand dollar that might become your grandson’s treasure. 
Call it a bric-a-brac fit for those of us prone to engage in bricolage. 
Nothing is what it seems, only the meaning invested in its arcane language.

A bleached sand dollar that might become your grandson’s treasure. 
And just the sight of a handwriting triggers the deepest emotions, 
Nothing is what it seems, only the meaning invested in its arcane language. 
I keep digging as I become the archeologist of my own experience.

*Publisher’s Note:

For details about this painting and others by Remedios Varo Uranga (1908–1963), see The mystical scene by Spanish surrealist Remedios Varo set a world record at USA Art News (4 July 2020).

Hedy Habra

is a poet, artist, and essayist. She is the author of three poetry collections from Press 53, most recently The Taste of the Earth (2019), Winner of the Silver Nautilus Book Award, Honorable Mention for the Eric Hoffer Book Award, and Finalist for the Best Book Award; Tea in Heliopolis (2013), winner of the Best Book Award; and Under Brushstrokes (2015), which was a finalist for the Best Book Award and the International Book Award. Her story collection, Flying Carpets (Interlink Books, 2013), won the Arab American Book Award’s Honorable Mention and was finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. A sixteen-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the net, and recipient of the Nazim Hikmet Award, her multilingual work appears in numerous journals and anthologies.

Author’s website: https://www.hedyhabra.com/