Disappointment by Samih Mohsen, translated by Henry King

At the door to her room
In the motel looking over the sea
I stood
Thinking of how she laughed in the corridor
When she came back that afternoon, damp with sweat.

I remember the look she gave me
Hands that made her hair flash
So lissom
A violet I held
And a song I will sing.

She prised me open with two crooked fingers
She looked at me
At the door to her room the heart stammers
She bolted the door
I bolted shut my heart with a rusty padlock.

from A Bird is not a Stone, An anthology of contemporary Palestinian poetry.  Freight Books, Glasgow 2014