Linger
by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Which country do you love more?
The question asked of each one of us
young travelers of the diaspora,
children with shiny shoes and English textbooks.
At this checkpoint no travel documents will do,
only testimonials of praise in perfect syllables
gutturals and glottal stops recited
with conviction to the cheering crowds.
On summer pilgrimages we are delivered
to the embrace of relatives,
the scent of their skin a heavy musk in the heat,
indistinguishable from the cumin and clay
of the garden where our fingers loosen
glimmering shards beneath green
shade of geranium leaves.
No time for deep breathing or personal
space—here the senses are overwhelmed,
here the air overflows with the sorrow
and story of love fattening on the vine,
and the longing, always the longing
for what is no longer here nor possible.
In this land of a thousand mirrors
reflections of everyone we must and could be,
mirage of our selves fragments on the horizon.
Let us in they beckon
Let our stories slip under your fingernails
Let our language collect in brushstrokes
across your furrowed brow.
Stay. Stay longer.
More tea? With mint or sage?
Consider carefully,
every herb a cure for one ailment
and companion to another.
Here our portraits find their frames,
the bells in our laughter find echoes.
With enough time and tea between us
the bridge of my nose becomes
an heirloom from ancestral villages,
your curls a heritage of defiance,
the shape of our fingers a flag.
Stay a while longer
there is so much more they will tell you.
Linger with us in the infinite hours
their invitation echoes.
Let the day lift its veils from the sky,
let the embers of sunset burn slowly,
let night drape its stars over the hills.
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Digital Circus Theory
The crew are all programmers who created Caine/the circus, but in particular Pomni’s head programmer. The other’s are her subordinates and she’s the last one to arrive in the circus because she ordered everyone sent ahead of herself to investigate/fix it until she was the only one left.
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Okay y'all but what if we see Ed and Stede slow dance to 80's romantic ballads? What if "Purple Rain" starts playing and we get to see them awkwardly shuffle around in the dance floor like two teenagers at prom huh? What then?
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“I hate the miscommunication trope” “the worst trope by far”
There is nothing better than the pining and wanting while not being able to say it. Seeing characters want something so badly but are unable to just say that they want it, wether out of fear the other doesn’t or simply because they have this internal conflict of do they or don’t they. The simple things they can’t bring themselves to say out loud. Seeing the click of realization/confirmation as they lay it all out in front of them, as a simple few words could unravel them completely. Or “Your love passed me by,” the missed opportunity the unfortunate time spent waiting when there was no reason, THE WASTED TIME. They could’ve been anything else if they just said it, if they’d let themselves have it.
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Hey! So, remember I said I was writing a Lottienat Band AU? Well, here is the first chapter ;)
I designed a poster to make the roles more visual, plus, this is what I imagined the band's poster would look like for the Festival. Anyway, hope u guys like it and enjoooooy!
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