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We now walk around this huge house, alone. We the two young sisters, young as the saying goes, since we have aged a lot; we are the alone and youngest of the family who survived. We don’t know what to do with this house, how to settle in it; it’s not right to sell it, we’ve spent all our lives here; this is the space of our dead, you can’t sell them; besides who wants to buy the dead? Then again to carry them from house to house, from one neighbourhood to the other is very tiring and dangerous; they have settled here, one of them in the shadow of the curtain, the other under the table, one behind the closet or the glass windows of the bookcase, one in the glass of the oil lamp, so polite and frugal as always, the other smiling discreetly from behind the two thin crossed shadows which are outlined by my young sister’s knitting needles onto the middle wall.
Dead chimneys smokeless lips without a smile victorious hearts that died — we have to bridge the edges of the abyss. We the people, over and above all, people, steadfast, breathless, shameless without any doubt with nothing hidden we shall charge into the streets again to rebuild life we, first of all, shall rebuild life. Sky full of voices inverted clouds that executed the high-noon — newspapers just printed by the printing machines. None of them reported anything about the faucets they turned on on their tortured bodies.
For an Old Fellow Student Now that my heart has aged, my friend and my years in Athens have passed sweetly and joyously in parties and sometimes in the grief of hunger I won’t ever return to the homeland that graced me with the celebration of youth but only as a hoping passerby traveller with my dream that vanished a pilgrim I’ll go back to your house to find out they don’t know where you are. Along with someone else I’ll meet your Aphrodite while others will occupy the house of peace. I’ll go to the tavern to re-order the Samos wine we used to drink I’ll miss you and their wine will taste different yet I’ll drink and I’ll get drunk singing and staggering I’ll go to Zappeion where we used to go together the horizon will be wide open all around and my song will sound like a lament.
Emily walks around and admires the luxurious details, the color scheme, and the functional design. She is in awe when she looks toward the water in the west as the sun is about to go down; the sky is red and there are hardly any clouds. “Oh, the view is so beautiful,” Emily says to Talal. “Yes, it’s phenomenal. Hakim has found a very nice place.” “How expensive is this? Has Hakim told you?” “Of course, he has…It cost $ 1,750,000…but where are you going to find this kind of a view and this kind of quality for less? Simply, you get what you pay for.” Hakim and Jennifer try to visualize their furnishings in the apartment and make a list of the extra things they need to buy. Hakim notices how all this pleases Jennifer, who’s organizing her notes, “Why don’t we hire a professional decorator to give us some ideas of things to put in here, baby?” She looks at him with a bewildered look on her face. “No, we don’t need a decorator; we’ll choose our own things. Why would we need a decorator?” Emily says, “That may be a good idea, sweetheart.” Jennifer is firm, “No, we don’t need help from any decorator; we can do all this ourselves.” “Then we don’t need a decorator,” Hakim agrees. They spend about an hour in the penthouse, with George staying out of their way as they put together notes and ideas.
Emily goes upstairs to her bedroom to change into something more comfortable while Talal sits on the couch in the family room and turns on the TV. He lies back and relaxes; it’s 7:30 p.m, time to think about dinner. His mind travels home to his siblings in Falluza whom he hasn’t seen since he first left Iraq. His sister Aesha is to be married next summer, and his younger brother Abdul must be fifteen years old this year. They have grown up and he has been away from them all this time. He wonders how they get by financially. The few dollars he mails now and then are not enough for them to live on; he wonders about their grandfather’s pension. He will find out more when he’s there. Emily comes downstairs and says, “Hakim knew about our going to Iraq for a holiday?” “Yes, my love.” “When did you tell him?” “Hakim and I talked about it before I made up my mind to go.” “Did he ask you to go for some reason?” “No, we both thought it would be a good idea to get you away from here for a while, and going to Iraq would allow me to see my siblings. Of course, he likes
Mayanaam
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