Quiet hope by Bella Fawzi (Netherlands, 17)

​Call me back
when the lotus flowers ache
start rotting and
fall apart piece by piece
give me a ring and
ask me to sing and
I’ll do it like before
don’t think I love you
anymore
but i’ll sing you to sleep
once more for sure.
I hate dandelions now;
wishes are too big
too sacred
to let a passing thing keep

to let a passing thing keep
I cannot follow
an echo that is not
mine to hear
wish you were there
but that would ruin it
like saying it out loud does
and everyday the lemons
they get sweeter and
I take the new into my arms
I feign love for the growth
that i know must come
that I know I will want
I am cursed with impatience
while I wait on an oath
that was never spoken
I cannot bare
to break myself open
come apart piece by piece
like a dandelion
oh, I don’t know anything.





Bella Fawzi (Egyptian and Dutch) was born in New York City in 2005, but after quite some travel has now been living in the Netherlands for over 10 years. Bella is a reader, a self proclaimed notes app poet and a 17 year old girl. She is an avid lover of nature, fruit, the moments in the margins, the moon and good conversation. Through her writing she explores youth, betrayal, absence, loss, raw realizations, growth and the multifaceted phenomenon of girlhood.