Poem by Lejla Aljel Muta

I think of you and i want to be by your side

We couldn’t leave each other’s company

We were longing for an audience, but not just any audience

one we could identify ourselves with.

We were looking at our own reflections.

You in my eyes and I in yours.

I was happy to look at you, show you yourself

look at my face, my pain, my joy.

I existed because of the space you were denying me

You took the air I wasn’t breathing. 

We warmed each others bodies when we were colder than we should have been

we keep alert to let the other one exist.

we didn’t know we both really wanted to sleep.

I missed having someone,

looking at someone watching me exist.

It’s not love, it’s ego.