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PoetryJanuary 19, 2013

Cool Water

Photography by Aiez Mirza

Photography by Aiez Mirza

You will not be taught to say goodbye

When your crystal is in pieces

you will not know how to stop the burning in

your eyes from drilling into your eyelids,

you will not learn how to handle the heavy block of ice

that presses into your chest:

you will stand on the top stair by the landing

in sore need of paint, the smell of yesterday’s garbage

and you will look at him in disbelief

your nightgown will trail, like your shortened breath

between your knees and you will look down at your silk slippers

and decide to follow.

 

You will see him turn and look at you

and you will not know how to read his lips

because they are still closed and

you will run down and he will turn and wait

and you will look into his blue eyes,

For the first time

you will be as tall as he is

and you can even look down,

then you will hug him and inhale his clean Davidoff smell and you will wonder

will Cool Water ever smell the same again?

And you will want to kiss him and yet you won’t

Because you can’t bear the thought that this is the last time,

the last time,

the last time.

~ Reem Rashash-Shaaban

 

Reem Rashash-Shaaban has an M.A. in Applied Linguistics and is presently an instructor in the English Department at the American University of Beirut. She is half Lebanese, half Saudi Arabian and lives in Beirut with her husband and four children. She writes poetry and fiction.

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One last love letter...

April 24, 2021

It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.

But… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth.

We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…

Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature.

If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at maryamp@themissingslate.com.

Farewell, fam! It’s been quite a ride.

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