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Now that we are here, Falasteen
take the time to ask yourself
Why is my body my body?
why is my hair my hair?
This smile, those teeth
The never ending eyelashes,
Where do they come from?
framing two balls of chocolate-covered marshmallow treats
Beneath densely forested brows
Why this skin?
That smells of fresh biscuits that warms in the sun
Somewhere between toiling and rolling sand dunes and raw smooth limestone
Ah
I ask myself these things looking up at your orange sky
At my cheeks becoming the color of your summer peaches
At the call to prayer in the distance
At the curves of my naked waist
At the bird receiving gifts from your soil
At the coarse hair that grows on my chest and trails down to the space between my thighs
As green fingertips whisper faintly with the wind
Caressing my cheek, my arm, my bare feet
The electric current in your dirt tethering my soul in place
As I hover two inches from the earth
Ah
Fossils and shells of a rich history sleep under a thin layer of crystalized honey...
your honey, dripping into parted lips
Now look side to side
On your vast fragrant earthen body
And see
Someone right beside us
Why is his body his body?
Why is his hair his hair?
And once and for all
Why did it take so long for me to ask?
For me to wonder?
The magic that created me created all of us
It is in me and in you, Palestine
It is the pearl softly resting in the fossa where our heart once was
At the center of the universe
A heart that now sits in our skull caressing minds
Like the mother we miss
Like the kiss we share
Right then and there
under your dawn sky
Ah!
In you, I see me
In your eyes I see home
I dress you slowly, Falasteen
And when I catch your memory in a photograph, out my window, or in the mirror
I smile