تكريم لعقلي المشتت / un hommage à mon esprit diasporique
البداية / the beginning / le début
(pondering four letter words)
B o r n and living where? I do not know what integration means My blood traces back to a dystopia with war and misery check and never ending points Wherever I touch becomes home- I am allowed to be rooted where I f e e l alright What about t i m e? will I ever be calm with my b o d y? will I e v e r be p a r t of one place? I have written about home for as long as I lived for as long as I have been everywhere H o m e is unavoidable I do not h a v e it I cannot see home there are no synonyms I do not know how to describe my l a n d My words are coping mechanisms for not being from one earth I lingered on one w o r d for d a y s on end Distorted ideas of home is what I know This is the way I begin and I end.
حياتي / my life / ma vie
(living because of love)
I am myself nurtured in the icy mountains dripping with maple on slippery slopes with flakes falling on my hair I exist through the desert where the scorching sun tends to me gently and brushes my skin with sunlight and sand I held it all in and clipped the keys where I can never lose anything from home.
النهاية / the end / la fin
(time traveling & daydreaming)
In a 40s picture with the upbeat melody the grass on me concrete supporting me up and down they walk I don’t see but what’s up in the sky no clouds in the framed memory a thunderstorm keeps mustering up the courage to roar the tornado is spiraling into silence almost-icy breeze on my face with my ears protected from the pushed back sounds I open my mouth it is empty But I am full and meant to be here.