Dialogue

This siege will extend until we teach our enemies 
paradigms of our Jahili poetry… (Mahmoud Darwish) 

Imagine the discourse 
as a wine-dark sea 
seething with storms that ensnare  
the future in the whirl   

The sea’s deep cerulean hue has not yet been invented 
but we sense its pull 
so we comb through the froth and churn for new words  
to bring our blue to life 

The Sirens sing us toward the seduction of old resentments   
while Charybdis vomits fragments of men and their feral doubts 
Poseidon raises waves of obstinance, stonewalling our compassion 
and Zeus burns scars of light across the fragile skin of truce  

All taunt the audacity of those who dare to attempt the crossing. 

These guardians of old-world habits and antiquated grievances 
revel in ancient entrapment 
(much later, it will be the orcas,  
passing their own judgment on the vagaries of hubris) 

We run aground 
gasping for release from the assaults of gray water 
parched from the salt of history polluting our drink 

Sometimes the passage hurts more than it should 
but persistence yields a landed sunrise  
new angles of light exposing shades of sapphire  
when seen from the other side.