Tick Tock

by Fatima Al Suwaidi 

This work appears in Khabar Keslan Issue 2. PASSAGE

---

dressed in a dark cloth
is a tick tock
rushing
I see it
between thirty nine thousand and five hundred words
six hundred and thirty two eyes
three hundred and sixteen breaths
all at once
it ticks
and ticks

clockwise
no
I see it
counter clockwise
it stops
how can a place hold so much oxygen

I stop
baggage claim
fifty four hands
breathe
breathe

strange wind
strange chill
how can air feel different
three thousand and sixty kilometers away from home

home;
a word that is stuck
under a bomb
a word buried
under a heavy heart
deep inside a heavy soul

home;
they say
is where the heart is
but home, was engraved on my soul
by an old mans smile
a child’s laughter in the park
a woman’s knitting needles
a tick tock, on the wall

---

Fatima Al Suwaidi is an architectural engineering student living in Dubai, author of When We Wonder. Her work has previously appeared in MICRO//MACRO zine by Nu Lit House and others. She is currently working on her second book.