Settling Up, by Anna Talhami

Self-Portrait, by Rembrandt (Netherlands) 1659

Settling Up

I wanted beautiful things: to hold the earth- 
enware and smell its coffee beans, your face 
in the morning soft before waking, the latest new
moon covert and still loved. I wanted 
couture too. I wanted god-
et hemlines with fairytale endings, frothy
tulle sleeves, purses 
in ice blues and cherry reds 
with gold chains to grasp 
and swing. I wanted to chase a life 
in the world 
that felt a little
like a romantic comedy on a movie theatre screen:
big and ordinary and out of reach,
and come home to a life of aging
Rembrandt’s self-portrait: the sunlight 
revealing our rumpled faces, our willingness
to hold on
to the shadows.

Anna Talhami

Anna Talhami is a poet and interdisciplinary artist with recent poetry in Rattle, Life as Ceremony, Hevria Magazine, and (F)Empower. She has performed her poetry across the U.S., including at the El Paso border for Artist Uprising, Radio Bloomsday, and the Theopoetics Conference. Her work has been presented at the Library of Congress, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and elsewhere. Visit her at annatalhami.com