Explorer of Cups (Reversed)

Horizon
by Qurat Dar

Pour my breath into a bottle and ask it to stay.
Let us pretend that this was not a doomed
endeavour from the start. Let us pretend
that I had breath to spare. That you were
not a wave trying to swallow the wind.
I will distill a thousand whispers. I will ask
the storm to hold its tongue. I will pray to the dawn
to wait.

Qurat Dar (she/they) was the City of Mississauga’s third Youth Poet Laureate (2021-2023) and the 2020 Canadian Individual Poetry Slam National Champion. Her work has appeared in Canthius, Augur Magazine, the Art Gallery of Mississauga, and virtual reality, among other places.