MATTAR, Mira
Affiliation [EN]

In the flameless, English suburb a young girl
opens windows
onto a brick wall. Sheet
of sky enters. No sea, no
horizon, fragments
of men own the neighbourhood.
If you crane your neck into a bird
on the ledge of the tonsillitic balcony
you slept on as a child
you will almost see the sea (there
there) behind the American University.
The young girl climbs from one window
scales carefully the exterior sill
(honeysuckle, Silk Cut Silver,
McDonald’s milkshake halfway up the straw)
and enters again through the other
in an infinite loop
or an ordinary circle
compulsively
she exits and enters
danger and names
this motion being herself.

A stunning sequence of letters and poems exploring gender, family, religion, war, ecology, colonialism and love in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and the United Kingdom. 

Also available in a French translation.

Published by Sad Press, 2021
Poetry