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The Almond

by Stéphanie Chasseloup

“Happiness? Happiness is making love because of love. It’s when the heart threatens to explode because it’s beating, when an incomparable look lingers on your mouth, when a hand leaves a bit of its sweat in the hollow of your left knee. It’s the saliva of the beloved that flows down your throat, sweet as sugar and transparent. It’s your neck stretching out, letting go of its knots and fatigue, becoming endless because a tongue is running up and down its full length. It’s your earlobe pulsating like your lower belly. It’s your back becoming delirious and inventing sounds and shivers to say I love you.”

Nedjma, The Almond, Grove Press, 2006