Anahita Azar has been with Spark since September 2022. Anahita is also working on expanding The Zine Project to disabled people.

The Dried Leaves of the Achaemenid

The red-velvet book at the top of the shelf is the one I want to read & I can’t get to it. The placement itself is unfair. You may ask what the contents are, but you won’t get the right answer, because I do not know, but you can have the imaginary one. And I’m not saying my eyes are perfect, but I have a clearer perception of these things because my imagination is quicker than my feet. I could even say that my imagination is quicker than your ability to climb the ladder of this bookcase. By the time you reach it, I’ve created an entire epic inside of my head. Or at least I can tell you what I think it feels like.

I’ve never held it. I think it’s important to tell you that I’ve never held it because the method is scenic, not direct. I’m guessing it feels like velvet & the aroma is soft pique. A peasant held it last reading it over a simmering tea pot on stacked-wooden flame. Maybe they were with someone. Maybe they were with someone they loved. I like to think of it as a little bit unrequited. I’m not sure there’s a word in English that can adequately describe the feeling of what is in between. اشتیاق itself is inadequate. This is somewhere beyond longing.

What if it was the book of longing itself? Only one edition. He wrote it to her & she wrote it back to him. It was a joined diary of longing from The Achaemenid. He would make her tea & because it took a long while to boil, instead of talking about how he felt about her, he would write insolent-structured haikus in her language. And then he’d pass the book to her & she would write ill-tempered-structured ghazals in his. Two songs clashing in rebellious verse. You wouldn’t understand the meaning, but you would know the feeling.

‘The Dried Leaves of the Achaemenid.’

The red-velvet book at the top of the shelf with parchment style paper, the aroma of soft pique love, a love story of two peasants and you don’t even have a title yet & I’ve created the greatest love story of the Empire before you could even think of getting a ladder.

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