Jerusalem (قدس)
By Ameer Hamad
Translated by Gabrielle Alvarez
I never loved you
I chase my heart in your alleyways
before it finds the path that had led
to Damascus
I chase it before reaches the tracks in the museum
To stitch its arteries with smoke
You are a city drunk with sand in its mirror
whose threshold is made of penumbra
whose very stones blow trumpets
guiding the soldiers
I never loved you
I chase my heart in your alleyways
and find it in the well of my grandfather’s shop
playing with bullets thrown by your devotees
when you opened with a red lock of hair
your bedroom door to the invaders.
Special Section: ‘To the Students of Columbia University’