there is noise going into the ears of Shaimaa al-Sabbagh
the siren of the ambulance that has come for her
voices of men running
the sound of one man carrying her
wind-up-music-box-ice-cream-truck-cellphone-ring
how is she here with these noises in her ears
she is dying with these noises in her ears
she has died with these noises in her ears
she will come back with these noises in her ears

–––––––––––––––-spaces in the air
we can’t see, hidden shelves like
eyes where the dead live and
sometimes they turn a flash of light /
refracting the air

how do hands peeling the
apple see the woman
with breasts cut out

***

you drown in a glass cup
floating in a bowl of water

This is the place where the winds meet
on the oval face
of the glass sleeper

holding two 
             opposing forces together
(not compromise)
because things should happen

***

Intermission

You would like, after all, to walk.
You would like to walk without cars.
Without the sound of cars.
to walk with your hand in a hand.
talking loosely.
talking of why read. 
towards hymettos with the sun setting 
to sit and have food and drink and to walk.
to feel the cloth on sunburnt skin & a scarf.
filled with longing this day of heaven this evening
of unforgivable air.
Quickly – to Vallejo. Quickly – where are the intact people?

there are discolorations on the right shoulder of 
the woman on the platform.
Who knows?
We’re alive now. After we’ll die.
The whiteness of sun on the asphalt 
The woman standing next to me she says
Good evening, but not to me.

There are Castor & Pollux the Dioskouri or the Tyndanidae 
There are Romulus & Remus sons of a wolf 
& Cadmus & Jason, both sowers of dragon’s teeth.

Nerval says of the black owl

‘I am inspired by the Vengeful God
Who plants his angry kiss upon my brow.