Shahid

I am home now with the architecture

of the sky in summer. Far away I assure

you all that the rubble is real, the devastation

is widespread and the people are tired.

I will also assure you that in Lebanon where

the end of the world never stops ending

life goes on. It goes on a bit differently

each time, a bit harder, for longer or less time,

the bread is still baked, the zatar collected

and enough olives pressed to bathe every-

thing in oil meal to meal. The villages lost

numerous young men who gave their lives

to deter a genocide and one day,

when the world stops ending, they will

be celebrated as victors, heroes and men.

We still fear to say some things of course

but the manifestation of beliefs, the real

manifestations that can only be seen

from the top side of the clouds in a monsoon

are pouring from the gutters and flooding the streets.