Two Spoons of Water

By Ramzi Albert Rihani

PROMPT — What is Love?

A tiny grain ignites a flame.

not knowing how incendiary it can be.

He hesitates, pauses, and debates,

wondering if the ashes would hurt or soothe.

There is a mystical aura in the air.

Nothing is clear except the smell of anticipation,

a smell mixed with spice and zen.

The hesitation starts to dwindle.

The serenity in her face hides a life of turbulence,

yet it is a sign of a mountain’s lucidity

waiting for the mysterious to become recognized.

But is she looking for the mystical or the familiar?

Behind this calm stillness

lays a boiling desire in disguise.

Warmth comes later.

Frigidity is the cover that shields from the unknown.

She resists surrendering to the temptation,

but glimpses of tenderness start to surface

escaping from the fragile body

and into the wide, announcing the crack of dawn.

She says the silence becomes livable,

and the invisible becomes touchable.

He plunges in freely with fortitude

as if the unknown were the most familiar thing on earth.

She says he is the stranger

who becomes indispensable by the sheer force of his gentleness.

Every word he says resonates

in the secret place where she can find peace.

Her words awaken a numb spirit

that finds refuge, breaks the silence,

and resorts to her mysterious place.

…And the flowers bloom with two spoons of water.

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Ramzi Albert Rihani is a Lebanese-American writer. He received the 2024 Polk Street Review first-place poetry award. His work has appeared in several publications in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Belgium, and South Africa, including ArLiJo, The Galway Review, Chronogram magazine, The Brussels Review, Fine Lines, Last Leaves Magazine, Poetry Potion, and The Silent Journey Anthology. He is a published music critic. He wrote and published a travel book, "The Other Color." He writes from Potomac, MD.