Aster

“I am sad because I love you, because I love you so much, and because I am not a bee to buzz with you lightly. I am not a flower, not a tree, not a rain-hewn stone. I am not a storm or a cresting wave, not a thorn or a vine. I am not the sun stinging the water, not the moon on the snow. I am not a star in the dark. I am not the dew-wet wind, not the cloud-stained dawn. I am only a girl, a small, plain girl, a girl who must smear her lips in honey to be found sweet.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The Honey Month

“I knew you once. I thought I did, and thought I knew myself as well. My little body, tiny wings, though small, still yet my very own. But I cannot see, cannot be sure, if in this fragile frame of mine, if in this dust, I have the strength to come to know you twice.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, The Honey Month

“Red, when I think of this seed in your mouth I imagine having placed it there myself, my fingers on your lips.”
― Amal El-Mohtar, This Is How You Lose the Time War