“He picked her up and kissed her lips. She has missed badly how their lips fit together like they were made only for him, she smiled during the kiss. After all what is said and done she knows that her heart was right when he told her that he was the one.” An excerpt from “He Is The One“ by our guest writer Lamees Kamel. Art by Pietro Tenuta
“Why did you tell me you would stay? You were never meant to stay or I was not, I don’t know. Either way, something tore us apart, that’s how life works. Love was not built to last and neither were we. I know you thought you loved me then; I am sure that you did but you stopped. Our love wouldn’t outlive us, and we had been dead for a long time, babe.” An excerpt from “I Will Be Yours Until I Am Not“ by our writer Reem El-Shazly. Art by Harumi Hironaka
“The method I use to escape from this suffering. You. I think of no one else, but you. My mind’s monsters are wicked, and possessive, and they’re often not just jealous of you, but afraid, too. You. The sole person I might never have. And I cannot help, but stare at the might I’ve just written, wondering if the odds would remain stubborn in the future and turn it to a will. You’re the person who’s making the most frightening thought of mine be a sentence of a possibility of a reality I cannot endure, or live. You. My whole epitome of cure.” An excerpt from “When I Think Of You“ by our guest writer Salma Ahmed. Art by zansot
“I’ve categorized our memories into folders, color coded them and pushed them in a place at the back of my mind. I try not to let them out, but they make their way to the surface more often than I thought they would. They don’t come back to me in flashes or images, they come back as colors, shades, torn up pieces of a painting.“ An excerpt from “You Were My Colours” by our writer Reem Mohammed. Art by poo reun
“Trust me, my poems are no longer about her, I just accidentally wrote a poem that talked about our relationship, but I never thought about her while writing it. I came here to teach you how to forget your lover, but, yes, I miss her, I fucking miss her, I miss the way she would dance in the kitchen playing her favorite songs, I miss her morning face and this raspy, sleepy voice of hers, I miss her small hands and I miss holding them everywhere, anytime.” An excerpt from “How To Forget The Love Of Your Life” by our guest writer Amira Ezzat. Art by Mozza
“Whenever somebody asks me what true love is, I start to stutter and my palms start to sweat because simply, I don’t know what it means and by that I mean I have watched every example of true love I have had crumble into the ugliest rubble I have seen. All I know is whenever I am with him, it feels right and by that I mean I would rather be with him than be alone on a rainy night.” An excerpt from “I Don’t Know If It Is True But It Is Right“ by our writer Reem El-Shazly. Artwork by zipcy
“I started smoking daddy. With each drag it takes me one step closer to you, to death,to the end. Smoking kills daddy. It will kill me, and it will kill you. I wish it would stop like that but it already killed our relationship. That night where you hit me for the first time i layed there in the bed thinking that i had lost everyone in my life. Because i did.“ An excerpt from “Smoking“ by our guest writer Rawan Elsophany. Art by Henrietta Harris
“I dropped you off at the airport when you decided to chase your dreams elsewhere, you had a look of determination, passion, and excitement. You looked so persistent, and so beautiful. I could’ve kissed you then, but I wanted you to kiss me. I’m looking back at out photo album, you look beautiful in every picture. I wish I would’ve kissed you, instead I just wanted you to kiss me.” An excerpt from “But I Wanted You To Kiss Me” by our writer Reem Mohamed. Art by Agathe Sorlet
“They’d say “I love you” out of nowhere just because they felt like reminding you that they do. And when you’re with them, it feels like each and every voice inside your head has been silenced. The world seems peaceful once again. You don’t have to worry about how you look, what you say, what you should and shouldn’t do, or even if you’re being completely embarrassing.” An excerpt from “I’d Give My Whole Heart To Who Could Silence My Demons, As They’re Too Loud For Me To Hear The Sound Of My Own Heart Beating” by our guest writer Ethar Mohammed. Art by Yoriyuki
“Your love was my painkiller, and I never thought that I would wake up one day and not find it. I don’t know how to even breathe knowing that I am not loved by you, not just how not to feel all this pain.” An excerpt from “Your Love Was My Painkiller“ by our writer Reem El-Shazly. Art by WanJin GIM
“I might not know how to write how much I love you in poems, nor give you a poem by Shakespeare to explain my feeling because I cannot even read all his poems to pick a favorite, you know it, I’m not interested in poetry. I can’t make art, but you can. You want a guy who writes about how your eyes remind him of stars and the milky way and take pictures of the sky and send them saying you look this beautiful, but I didn’t even remember we are in the milky way until you said it last week.” An excerpt from “This Is Not A Love Poem“ by our guest writer Amira Ezzat. Art by bachtz
“I thank God I am not a crier like my mom and sister. Because I would have spent my whole life crying because I still put her in everything. I can’t watch new or old TV shows because I put her in both of them. She is in every lyric of my new and old favourite songs. I can’t read books anymore, she is in every one. I can’t love someone new and I can’t love people whom I used to love because she used up all my love. “ An except from “She Is Everywhere” by our writer Reem El-Shazly. Art by Joshua Miels
“Mon âme gâché des affres, mon corps démoli d’épuisement trouvent, de la candeur de ton être, le goût de la vie jadis oublié.A se réveiller au chantre de ta voix, cette mélodie apaisante.. My soul ,ruined with torments, my body, demolished from exhaustion, found, from the candor of your being, the taste of life formerly forgotten.To wake up to the chanter of your voice, this soothing melody ..” An excerpt from the English/French “Unfinished works|| Bad habits“ by our guest writer Malak Omar.
Art source
“ Love is your dreams, whether too high or too low. Love is your body, whether you accept it or not. Love is your bubbly self as much as it’s your miserable one. Love is the way you stand out among everyone around you. Love is you before it’s anything else. And to love, is to love yourself before anyone else.” An excerpt from “And To Love, Is To Love Yourself Before Anyone Else“ by our writer Reem Mohamed. Art by Pascal Campion
“He captivated my world, he held me hostage in his.
He was the only one that made me feel things I never knew existed. He was the one that made me see colors through his eyes, colors I have never seen before. He made me see things the way he wanted me to see them.
I made him my home but I never knew he liked destructing every house he has ever built. I made him my life, but he liked the sight of death more.” An except from “He Is My Curse” by our guest writer Sohyla Ayman. Art by albaricoque_agc
“I tried to walk away but with you, there was an actual magnetic field, so, I stayed to try it out. And it was perfect, I found that as different as we are, we still had so much in common, you taught me that poles can be both positive and negative at the same time and that things can be white with black spots like a Dalmatian’s or visa versa, those spots can even be stripes like those of the zebras.” An excerpt from “Positive Pole” by our writer, Reem El-Shazly. Art by INÈS LONGEVIAL
“You can feel homesick for a hug you used to throw yourself in and forget every other bad thing that is actually bothering you. You can feel homesick to a conversation that you used to laugh your head off in.” An excerpt from “Homesick” by our guest writer, Rana Essam. ⠀ Art by Tahnee Kelland
“And I’m sad. I’m sad because you don’t remember any of that, because you wouldn’t let your mind wander for a moment to think about me, to recall what it felt like to be just us, to live in a world where it was just you and me and crappy indie music from an old stereo underneath the oak tree in your backyard, because you probably won’t recognize me if we happen to run into each other someday and if you did, you’d probably just keep walking, because of you, because at some point, you were mine.” An excerpt from “I Want To Know What It Feels Like To Not Be In Love With You” by our writer, Reem Mohamed.⠀ Art by David Agenjo
“Her hair smells like a demonstrative playable fiddles,⠀ It keeps pushing and pulling, It keeps going up and down,⠀ Her hair is a rebellious tidal wave.” An excerpt from “One Of The Millions” by our guest writer, Rowan Ahmed.⠀ Art by Andreas Lie
“I should’ve realized what was going to happen when it was our wedding and she was your ‘best man’. You stood there after our vows and you said, “I’m glad you’re here with me.” I said “Me too” but it wasn’t directed at me. I should’ve said something when it was 3 am and you couldn’t sleep, I held you thinking it would help. You said “I hate it when we’re not talking.” I was going to speak, but you didn’t mean me.” An excerpt from “I Should’ve Seen It Coming, But I Didn’t” by our writer, Reem Mohamed. Art by Agnes Cecile