By Fadi Abu Deeb

(First published in Inventory Journal, No. 9, Princeton University)

Once, the sky was a tree
Its fruits were like far-away stars
Our townspeople were busy,
Reading about spheres,
And studying the origin of geometry.
And I knew/
That above its farthest branches
A perfumed green space expanded,
Streams of liquid pearls were suspended,
Lands and fields there stretched
Homes and moons were in light drenched.
I knew that/
There were orbits, melodies, oceans and forests,
Asteroids with comets there were rushin’,
And that magic tales could certainly happen
We built small aerial ships
and ascended to borrow fruits,
Inside which dreams for every night rested.
Then we borrowed the coming morning/
From the course of time.
We searched the visions for meanings,
Preserved light for our stories,
that were yet to come,
In that new space.