I Am There

I come from there and remember,

I was born like everyone is born, I have a mother

and a house with many windows,

I have brothers, friends and a prison.

I have a wave that sea-gulls snatched away.

I have a view of my own and an extra blade of grass.

I have a moon past the peak of words.

I have the godsent food of birds and an olive tree beyond the ken of time.

I have traversed the land before swords turned bodies into banquets.

I come from there, I return the sky to its mother when for its mother the sky cries, and I weep for a returning cloud to know me.

I have learned the words of blood-stained courts in order to break the rules.

I have learned and dismantled all the words to construct a single one:

Home

Mahmoud Darwish

(Picture: Homeland denied return to sender, Jacek Yerka)