Amina Jama

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The poem is long and I wrote it for you

I didn’t know how kindness could be until we
shared a meal. My carnivorous friend
enjoying cauliflower on my behalf. There is no
need for commas. For pauses or gaps. I want
our dreams to run into each other’s and share
a Guinness. I want to return to the Lake District
and walk the same path we walked for toothpaste.
I want to laugh again about how we are Londoners
first so no we don’t drive. I want to be possessed
with an idea. A porous and dense one. I want to share
a chaotic evening where we forget everything
but leave with such a deep sense of remembering.
I want to speak about why the price of eggs go up
and finish reading together all the books
that tell you about which number adds up
to which other number. I want a holy night.
In a holy place. I want dancers to emerge
and the last bell to ring. The shutters to be lowered
and we are not sad or envious for the sun coming up
because anywhere with you is where joy is possible.

I want the poem to be long for you. Because it is okay.
It is always decent. Tonight we drank.
And soon we will drink again.

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AMINA JAMA is a Somali-British writer and curator from East London. A member of Octavia Poetry collective, Barbican Young Poet alumni and Obsidian Foundation alumni, her pamphlet, A Warning to the House that Holds Me (Flipped Eye Press, 2019), received a 2020 Eric Gregory Award.