Category Archives: Uncategorized

Border Lives

Posted on March 31, 2017 by

–always some kind of map stretching be-/yond these lines: history, politics, progress… Memories dimmed to the quality/ of ancient murals… I find a new road I never knew existed or, is it an old/ street deprived of its landmarks?// Jane … Continue reading →

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The Kindness of Strangers

Posted on October 1, 2016 by

kiss me, for where else do we carry home now, habibi, if not on our lips? Zeina Hashem Beck, “Naming Things, for refugees, September 2015” I dislike the idea of essentialism. I want to believe we always have that choice … Continue reading →

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Abeer’s Classroom

Posted on June 18, 2016 by

The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore “Dover Beach”, Mathew Arnold Abeer came up to me with a wide smile and clasped her hands. She said she had news. We had become friends … Continue reading →

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The Children

Posted on May 8, 2016 by

“The opposite of irony is nakedness” Lia Purpura, “Brief Treatise Against Irony” I was down at the Syrian shelter, or what’s being called ‘Syrian House’ a squat where some 400 people have made a shelter out of an abandoned school. … Continue reading →

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The porous [boundary

Posted on March 13, 2016 by

Border: noun the part or edge of a surface or area that forms its outer boundary the line that separates one country, state, province, etc., from another; frontier line: You cannot cross the border without a visa the district or … Continue reading →

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Rupture

Posted on February 23, 2016 by

“How will I ever eat fish again, or swim in the sea, but I will eat fish and swim in the sea,” says Katerina.   How do you speak of days imbued with the halcyon sun as dead bodies wash … Continue reading →

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The Lament Tax

Posted on December 20, 2015 by

“…I was thrown out of Smyrni and all I do is cry… I smoke hashishi and play the outi in café Aman…” (from “Prosfigaki”, or “Refugee” by Markos Melkon) The Greek “Amanedes”, or laments, prefigured Rembetika music, which, like the … Continue reading →

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