Nocturne for a Borrowed City
A poem in four movements.
Omar Haddad
· 4 min read
Written over four nights in a city the poet did not choose, this nocturne keeps its own irregular time.
The city rehearses its evening without me. Somewhere a shutter comes down like a sentence finishing itself.
I have learned the bus routes and none of the names. Fluency is a kind of forgetting I have not yet agreed to.
Rain, then the long clean silence of streetlights doing their arithmetic.
If you are reading this in a language you were given rather than one you chose — we are, briefly, neighbours.
- #Poetry
- #City
- #Night
Omar Haddad
Poetry Editor
Poet and translator working between Arabic and English. His third collection explores exile, memory, and the grammar of longing.
Discussion (2)
Comments are moderated. Disagreement is welcome; contempt is not.
Hana Idris
3 days ago
The third pass you describe is exactly what I lost during years of skimming. I've started rereading one essay a week and the difference is real.
Daniel Okoye
1 day ago
I'd push back gently: some difficulty is just poor editing wearing a scholar's coat. The distinction matters.
