“Fall in love with me
and I will immortalise you in my poetry.
Fall in love with me
and I will worship each of your lashes like Divinity.
Fall in love with me
and I will take you to the peak of explosive rapture daily.
If you haven’t already,
I dare you to fall in love with me.”

Kamand Kojouri

“I awaken by the heat
emanating from your body.
I wash the grapes
and eat the bad ones
so you don’t taste
their bitterness.
You place the bowl
on your stomach
and the cold
makes you squeal.
I smile.
You simper.
That is enough for me.

I come home
and eat my meal
in silence.
I avoid you.
Your hand takes the dish
I just placed in the sink
and washes it.
I rest my head
on the wooden table.
The dish is placed to dry.
There are no footsteps.
Then
a mouth kisses the nape
of my neck.
My head sinks deep into the wood
and my obstinacy drowns.
That is enough for me.

I write because
of you,
about you and
for you.
I will not perish
when you leave
for your existence
is enough for me.”

Kamand Kojouri

“Your skin is a thousand stars
being born at once.
I want to drown in your light.

Pour.
Pour the light of your body on me.

Your hair is the night’s skirt
whose folds hide a thousand moons.
I want to drown in your night.

Pour.
Pour the night of your body on me.

Your eyes have orphaned me from certainty:
Oh, the freedom of knowing nothing!
I only understand this moment
that contains all of eternity.

This moment
that you are here
and I am here
and we make a world.
This moment
is all we need to know.
You and I
were always made
for this moment.

Let life have us.
And pour.
Pour the life of your body on me.”

Kamand Kojouri

“I have given it much thought.
There seems to be
only one explanation
for why we are here.
Why our souls choose
to incarnate as mortals
only to suffer for a hundred years
over and over again.
I now understand
we were once angels
who chose to manifest as humans
in order to experience the imperfect
and tempestuous human love.
So you see, if angels couldn’t refuse love
then who am I to refuse you?
And so I yield.
I surrender to this.
Our eternal dance.”

Kamand Kojouri

“You keep thinking you’re too much for me
that I will say I’ve had enough.
But I drank all you poured for me
and I’m thirsting to drink some more.”

Kamand Kojouri

“You do not insist that I love you
but how can I help it
when I hear your unbridled laughter?
How can I deny it
when I see your constellating freckles?
You do not insist that I love you
but how can I help it
when your scent shadows me at night?
How can I deny it
when your beauty attacks me in the light?
You do not insist that I love you,
but I insist that I do.”

Kamand Kojouri

“You keep asking me about my past lovers
and whether I still have feelings for them.
You become upset when I don’t keep a straight face.
Yet, it is not my fault. I can’t help but smile
when I think about later tonight
and how my fingers will comb through your hair.”

Kamand Kojouri

“Autumn has come
and reason has gone.
Yesterday, I sold the sun for you
and tonight the stars are running away from me.
When you first spoke,
you slowly annihilated my world.
Your mouth was like the sea —
in your kisses I sank.
Your hands were like the ocean —
in your caresses I sank.
I ask for no salvation on this moonless night.
I only ask for more Autumn.”

Kamand Kojouri

“The first time I heard you laugh,
I only wanted to say funny things
so you’d always be laughing.
You know what happens to chocolate
when you leave it in the sun?
I’m that unfortunate chocolate
and you, you are the laughing sun.
For this reason, I’m offering myself to you
not as a martyr or some selfless fool,
but as a self-indulgent moth
who fiercely pursues the light
without fearing the flame.
The moth who revels in the heat
and declares
Burn me.”

Kamand Kojouri

“Everywhere I go,
your beauty spills
into my day.
The trees were
never this verdant.
The birdsong
never this sweet.”

Kamand Kojouri