this is wait
this is i did not know they made smoke like ocean
this is aluminum dusk and sulphur clouds
this is sabah el kheir
morning of luck
morning of cinder
this is steam and ruin and flash-lit bodies
this is counting your lost
this is losing count
this is man greets dawn with head tilted back
this is man greets dawn with shrapnel
this is i cannot count fast enough
sam7ini

this is daughter
this is i am half yours
half light thrust, midwifed from some candle
this is some parallel life where my
father’s father took a left,
grabbed a fistful of soil and instead of leaving,
stayed

this is diaspora
this is always through the television screen
this is always the wrong question
this is five other coastlines
this is gutless
this is don’t change the channel
the least you can do is watch
this is diaspora
this is carry your name in bangkok
carry your name in brooklyn
this is wrecking ball of compass

this is wait
this is i did not know they made sky so famished
this is metal,
reincarnation of metal,
of children limp grey dust beneath
buckled buildings
this is sky of knives
this is body is not body but silhouette ribcage
and shallow graves
this is history

this is i did not know this earth had jaw
enough to hold all the things your children
have dropped
this is village
this is village eats ash for a week
this is Allah
this is boys terrace bones for luck
this is girls press flowers for luck
this is what luck is it to survive one bullet
for another
this is black water and phosphorus fish
this is lost electricity
this is hands muddy from sifting through rubble
this is hands muddy for anything breathing
this is seven types of illness
this is rage is bread if it keeps you alive

this is Allah ou akbar
pray with both hands
this is hands and cathedral bones,
dirt in eyelash
this is teeth and teeth and teeth for months

this is daughter
this is carry your name in throat
carry your name in beirut
this is not gun
this is not missile
this is make the world say your name aloud
over Gaza and over Gaza and over Gaza
until they hear your music
because this is survived

this is you are loved
light spans for you over land and sea
and you are in the mouth of tripoli shoreline
and boston nightclub and paris street corner
this is voice too soft sam7eena
this is sam7eena

this is daughter
lamplight reciting of Fatiha
this is wait and atlas
and keep waiting as some thread stretches
gossamer thin across ocean
this is compass finding east
voice learning to rise
this is half yours
this is daughter
and we will carry your name everywhere