Persis KarimHere--the place where we speak their names in shadows and reflections, the trace of our belonging, in this refuge--still living in threads of memory--even when the infection of violence, chaos of new explosions force us to remember the dead, the scared, the hungry in Aleppo, Baghdad, Sana’a, San Francisco, Jerusalem we carry this prayer on our lips Hold your baby tight with the faith that someone will receive you, want you, want to know the story of your life, someone's hands will circle you, someone's heart will hold you, someone's nation will welcome you after someone else sought your erasure we carry this prayer on our lips In the requiem of light, you will be more than a displaced person, you will no longer be adrift in the open sea where your suitcase is the raft of your dreams, where your sacred prayer can float in the air of magnified hope and the cycles of the universe cannot stir a flower without troubling a star, Here, where we can be one-- whole-- moving in the canopy of the human. |
