Places

Qateef, Saudi Arabia

Contributors: Raed Al-Jishi
Qateef, Saudi Arabia

« The Qateef settlement dates back to approximately 3500 B.C. and is well known for its traditional markets (suqs), such as its Fish Market. »

I cannot recognize myself

If I don’t wear me.

Faces are deceiving

without their masks,

like that bleeding

white gulf.

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In the theater of time

crucified on my language,

watching the birds

falling onto my song,

stealing pieces of bread

from my melody,

what does its meaning

Prepare for me...

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Their identikits are a mystery.

I couldn’t recognize them

by the reflection

of the wind

Nor by the sensors

On my blind stick.

They walked by me

with sympathy.

...
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The language of love

is spontaneous,like me,

like a painting of a child.

I used to draw my house

on the left side of the paper.

My house was so small,

neither doors nor...

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Surrounded by the walls of memory

with no lover

and nothing to remember

I mock

my triangular cuffs

and the illusion

of hands in a circle.

An iron cage of emotions...

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I have seen gulls, in holy visions, hover and invent the sound of horses. I have seen them give alms to rats hungry for crumbs of bread, crucified on the altar. I have seen them flap their wings and swallow common...
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Tarut Fortress & Qatif City
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I drink

the low-fat morning death.

I begin it by eating dates.

How many times did

the dates immigrate us?

How many times did death strip

the conscience of silence...

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We have a modest tradition

of hospitality.

Our Arabian coffee

doesn’t need sugar

or cardamom

to be tasty or delightful

just like the smile

we serve

to those...

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Unlike in Shakespeare’s verse,

I felt the summer day.

The sun burned

my nocturnal wings

and the wind tossed me away.

My steps on the milky shore,

my feathers in the sky

...
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My kid is playing nearby

and he stuns me,

how he chooses my right breast

and sucks my age

till it swells.

I try to surprise him

with my left

but he squeezes the nipple...

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I am a Tuareg child.

My blue turban drowns me

in the waves of sadness,

then expels me

like seeds of ivory.

O! great Tin Hinan,

your brave knight

lost his way among...

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