Cover by Nick van den Berg
PoetryPoem of the Week

Poem of the Week | Bethnal Green by Nayma Chamchoun

By Nayma Chamchoun

A journey to Bethnal Green.

It seems odd to take this path

When it doesn’t lead to you.

Every weekend racing to merge.

Unpacking the whole week’s events.

When the words faded,

A flood of desire

Carrying away the world’s lament.

Now the words have stopped.

The desire, terminated.

Faded snapshots of memory

As I alight at your stop.

A cat burglar in your hood.

Here for my own ends.

Avoiding detection.

The places you stood.

In the rush hour trickle and flow.

Beaming in your manor.

The Pearly King of banter.

Lullabies of the Bells of Bow.

I am the thief of love.

Taking hearts when mine is broken.

Unbearable, hopeful longing, unspoken.

Stealing through coves

Of love’s end

In the East End.

For more original poetry, check out the HeadStuff Poem of the Week and Unbound archives.

Cover by Nick van den Berg on Unsplash

Nayma Chamchoun 1 posts 0 comments

Nayma Chamchoun is a self taught writer and poet. Her writing is influenced by her cultural duality. She is interested in female voices in the diaspora community, the challenges they face within both communities and the taboos around mental health within their ancestral communities. She currently has a poetry collection being published and has performed her work at several Poetry Open Mike events including the Grenfell 5 year Anniversary event and is an active member of the writing community in London and online.
Her book COVID: THE WORDY WILDS OF A MIND UNDER LOCKDOWN is a cultural fusion poetry collection which explores themes of identity, duality, displacement, loss, race, feminism, culture, family, love and the search for inner peace as experienced alongside the effects of mental health, menopause, the pandemic and world events.