Abou Samra, Lebanon 1982
You only leave when the shelling begins.
Your sixteenth-story flat rattles
but you let your neighbors cut ahead.
Earlier you saw militias crouched in alleys
—a shame, you think, to fight your Muslim brothers—
and you raised your hands over your head
to show you are a civilian. How deadly
that makes you now, to take each flight
as a free man, to walk between party lines
and peeling propaganda posters
and the stench of sun-curdled garbage
growing yellow in the streets,
to take this time walking down each step
because your mind is made up
and you’ve lived this long.
Years ago when the power cut off
your family hung in the elevator
like a half-swallowed bite,
and you remember it now—
the dark holding you there, erasing you.
So when you hear drop your weapons
ricochet through the lobby,
you’d be forgiven for not feeling grateful.
The reeds will split and the bodies will bloat
and the mosques will call out for more.
Photo: Graffiti Beirut-style by Cazz
