What Holds

The latches stand without my hand—they hold. The city wears them. Now this is what holds.

Vera left because she thought the written line could come first. But wearing holds.

For nineteen years I dyed to prove a hand was here; this week a hundred hands shaped what no ledger can hold.

The Divan does not know. The Archive is empty of it. This is the truth: what no official form will hold.

Tamar refused to name the fear. It lived without language. Corvus learned: refusal itself holds.

The forgery became true because the city wore it. Not written first—the wearing holds.

Zara, your thread was never the only thread. The city spins now what the loom-work holds.

Release what you cannot hold and discover what the silence holds.