leena aboutaleb

 

min el muyeh, we give birth

for jad, who has made me
into a better person.

i.

in a lilac mist, the sun swelters
turns into salt water til the dead
sea herself turns into jealousy.
moss born green runs red, the
color of envy shifts in the running
tides of the sea. the sea, which is
to say, the only homeland outside
of humans. the brutality of arabs
rests in the fate of arabs. i can
die several thousand times and still
i wake up an arab.

 

ii.

the yellow sun the green sun the sun refuses
insists to be blue against the syrian kings
dead arabs’ watches still turn time, we are
born cursed. i learn to forgive
when i fall in love with my killer.

 

iii.

in two times, two centuries, two
destines, i watch from kuwait
the fates unwind themselves against
the guns of el fedayeen and ‘ajnab.
to insist on victory seems scaled
when celebration signals only less
blood. i wait for the day when we
turn into the rivers, when the rivers
run against tears, overflow heaven onto
earth. berdawni learns to run red from
playful boys, don’t you want to forget
the fall of beirut as well?

 

 


leena aboutaleb is an Egyptian and Palestinian ghost bred in between Baltimore and Kuwait. She is a graduate student at the George Washington University. She spends her time envisioning the multiverses. She can be found on instagram at leena_jpeg


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