Between a broken dream and hope

I wished for a moment

To melt like a piece of ice

I wished the birds to snatch me in my sleep

To hang me on the tower walls!

**

I wished to loiter in a street

How often I have walked it alone

Carrying a pen and a book in my hand

Under the light of the stray lamp posts

Accompanying my shadow

Stretched behind me

Like my country, far away

I wished to lie down like it on the pavement

To hug my fear

To lick my death

To spit my sorrow in a gutter

That does not reject the bitterness inside me

**

I wished for once to fall

In a well of devils and jinn to listen

To what will be and where and how

For nothing left on earth but garbage

We chew garbage, drink it in silence

Sweat it in obedience and humiliation

And wash it with the blood of those

Who live with pride and dignity!

**

I wished in a moment to travel with no return

On this train that goes inside the mountain

Into the eye of darkness

That draws its lid down in a prayer

I wished to be like a dummy in the shop

People would look at me, disinterested

In my colour, my looks, my home town

And not ask

About the tattoo and the burned scar

On the features of my soul

**

I wished in a moment to stitch the wounds

With a new thread

To poke the eye of pus

To let out a sigh in the presence of sorrow

To gather the scattered pieces of my born dream

To listen to a hymn and a violin

I wished to hear the horse in it

When it raises its front hoofs

Playing innocently

And gallops racing the wind under rain

I wished to hear the child, giggling

When his mother tickles him, playing

Under the moon light

So he sleeps

With peace singing in his heart

**

And I know that the immigrant is coming

In spite of the minefields

In spite of the cannons on the roads

And the snipers on the roofs of the houses

The houses that did not sleep

He is coming

In spite of the fires

Devouring the heart of the fields

And the provisions of the orphans

Who sleep with no dinner

He will come to plant light in every eye

To leave a bag of wheat in every house

To fill the hungry stomachs

With bread and water

**

And I know that the immigrant

In spite of the snakes' poison

In spite of the traitors' wishes

Is coming

Coming!

(3/10/2005)

破碎的夢與希望