The Cartoon & Poem Supplement

"I ran away..."

Poems:

"Habibti Ghazal" by Hala Alyan: The speaker looks back at their nineteen-year-old self. Clever in its use of form; the rhymes and repeats never feel awkward. Some of what's around them comes close, though; "You lit like a county fair," or a "prop city with its prop heart." Too much perfume for me, which is always a danger when addressing the past self – it's easy to get caught up in the romance, since strong feelings have been shaped into unambiguous stories, whereas the present-self speaker still has the remove of uncertainty.