Time

I am half of the universe
will I ever be a whole being?

Talal Haydar is closer to the truth than I am, being of
this place.
He used to pick up the moon
between the stones and take her to his bed …
These days, he bends to pick up a flower—
finds traces of blood.

Syria has always been the mother
of chaos. A land parallel to
all the others. In the epiphany
of a sun to come,
breathless.

There are moments when
the past ceases to be a form
of the present.

When no one is waiting for us
any longer, there’s
death,
so faithful

Nothing is closer
to the sacred than nothingness.

I am hungry for the ruins
where I was running
in prehistory.
I will travel,
motionless.

under our
footsteps a ghost
rises and instantly
disappears
because our countries
keep going up
in smoke.

Theseus followed the thread
to kill the Minotaur
his wife had deceived him with,
but the string broke,
and his anger fell on his son.
Some
sometimes remember him,
but that
only makes him
twice as dead.

Objects are
the children
of their
own shadows
Climb through
infernal jungles
as monkeys do,
enter the labyrinth
that you are.