Wednesday, September 30, 2009

libya in lowercase, days 6 - 10

I went to Libya this summer to visit my family and wrote a poem for every day gone. This is libya in lowercase. The next five days.


- + -

april 15, 2009. wednesday.


i’ve never been so glad to see orange in my life

and as i make my way through the small airport

and the man in the faded suit asks

“nadia kamal?”


i don’t think i’ve ever been more happy to be who i am.


-


april 16, 2009. thursday.


i am changed now, here, in my fairytale land.

i am binti kamal – masha’Allah!


i never want to be remembered as anything else.


-


april 17, 2009. friday.


i sit in a smoke-filled garage

amongst too many cats and just enough aunts

and eat barbecue.


the weather is nice

but

the smoke chokes me

until i can’t breathe.


-


april 18, 2009. saturday.


this place is truly beyond words

i swear i had a dream about it when i was younger

before i had even set foot on orange sand.


you wouldn’t believe me if i told you.


i think that’s why you will never understand.


-


april 19, 2009. sunday.


i wonder, fifty years from now,

if i will remember this day


where i went

what i said

who i kissed

or hit.


and will i laugh or cry?