Echo & Elixir I
by Khaled Mattawa

It shines through clouds and rain.
It dyes the streets with its pink blossoms.
The day crawls through its tunnels.
The roads are long and long.

City without words. Night without night.
Somewhere I remember
these clothes are not my clothes.
These bones are not my bones.

I forget and remember again.
Ships in the harbor which is the sea
which is the journey
that awakens a light inside my chest.

Look at the hands turning the knobs.
The hands that haul the machine.
The man on the phone calling,
hanging up, calling again.

Dust and twisted nails, pebbles
and pieces of broken china,
and all the sweeping that goes on in the world.
No help.

No use saying “I will wait.”

It flowers into decades of May.
It shines the windows with your passing gaze.