Sulh

Sulh صلحة

For all those infected months 

we witnessed the withering of souls

when the precious body wraps its two banks

as if we were a Christo and Jeanne–Claude project

in the Middle East.

But she’s dead and he’s dead 

and only a target is left of them

and of us

the suspicion turned into desire that turned into compassion

that turned into alienation 

and blocking on social media

as if we were back again at the communication terms

of the year in which this earth was 

renamed. The development of a new language out of life itself

Ana bahebbak ya qalbi hayati

I learned the enemy’s tongue so I could read the love poems you wrote me

in moments of envisioning the apocalypse 

not normalization but

sulh

not the usual matter of things but

a condition of separating from the ground

we both know,

that when fire whispers

the one who made you fall

is the only one who would help you rise up.

*Sulh صلحة – in Arabic means Resolution

tr. from Hebrew by Maayan Eitan