Black Flowers

Once upon a time, there was a little girl, or maybe a little boy, we don’t know anymore, for it was a long long time ago.
The little girl fell in love with a star. the star was already in love with a flower.
The flower's thorns hurt the girl, the girl turned into a monster, she started destroying every flower. she painted them all black.
The star was up in the sky, didn't do anything at all, till now , no one knows if she ever cared.
The flower died, and all other flowers turned into black stones.
The girl remained a monster, and she is still somewhere in some forest. She visits me sometimes, and brings me a bouquet of black stones.
Maybe someday she will not be a monster anymore, or she will stop coming here.
I'm moving at the end of the month, maybe she won’t be able to get to my place, but I feel sorry for her.
I know she will find her way to my new place anyway.
Maybe I’ll return to my previous shape, an alley cat, but there are no alley cats here, there is just aristocats, cats with toys and flee collars and meow mix.
Maybe if I’m back to normal again, as my real self, the stray cat, maybe monster girl wont find me. I hate black stone flowers

Ottawa - 1997

The Flag

she crossed the desert,
she had a little flag ,
they where chasing her, wanted to take that flag away,
they had swords, they caught her,
they chopped off her right arm, the flag fell down,
she picked it up with her left arm up and ran , fast, a trail of blood
on the sand, Arab blood, with all the colours of the flag
she ran , it hurts, it's hot , she's thirsty,
they are chasing her, she reached the north pole,
it's cold, cruel cold, and she's thirsty,
they chased her still, they looked different but they are the same,
they caught her , they stabbed her in the back,
cut her left arm, the flag fell down, she fell down , bleeding,
the flag was next to her heart, in her heart, they couldn’t take it away.

she is bleeding, they were talking , yelling,  'forget ' they said,
she couldn't speak, she was in pain, she felt the flag next to her
heart, she smelled the Nile, the lemon trees of Jericho,
they shouted :'forget' , she heard the sea, port said, intima' intifada, watan, watan, watan, watan........, aqaba, ladqyeh.
She saw lots of hannoun, and olive trees, she heard Marcelle singing Mahmoud Darwish, 'muntasiba el qamati amshi... marfou3a al hamati amshi, fi kaffi qasfatou zaitounin wa3ala katifi na3shi, wa ana amshi...'  and um kalthoum was singing. Al Mutanabbi, Ahmad Shawqi, Abu el Qassem, Ilea, Imrii el Qais, Jubran, Qais wa Laila, Salah el Dein, camels, horses, the dome of the rock.
Al Joulan, Baghdad, Sina , Muthaffar, Sabra and Shatila... all the saints  where  there.
They yelled 'Forget Forget !!!!!'
NO, she said. That was the last word she said.

Ottawa  - 1997/8