Pomelo Days
by Lisa Suhair Majaj (Cyprus)
Source: These Words (2004) p.4
January
rain jewelling the jasmine
dark blossoming early
my father pushed the door open
arms filled with rustling sacks
winter clinging to his collar
poured out great yellow rounds of pomelo
dimpled like grapefruit, but pear-shaped
seeds dense as teeth
and sure as the rain in winter
we knew
pomelo days had come
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Jerusalem Song
by Lisa Suhair Majaj (Cyprus)
Source: These Words (2004) p.16
Your walls fold gently
a wingspan
embracing the dreaming city
Your air drifts with the odor of incense.
women's voices floating upwards.
a twist of prayer toward heaven's ear.
I hold your name beneath my tongue
like a seed
slipped into the mouth for safekeeping.
Jerusalem, fold me like a handkerchief
into your bosom. I am
one word in a lover's letter.
a chip of blue tile in your sky.
Even those who have never seen you
walk your streets at night.
We wipe your dust from your feet
each morning, rise from our beds wearied
by the long distances
we have traveled to reach you.
See how we save even the broken bits of pottery
fitting fragments together
along jagged lines to remember you.
Jerusalem, we are fledglings
crying for a nest!
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Copyright (c) 2004 to Lisa Majaj.
Available in print edition.
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Lisa Suhair Majaj is a Palestinian-American writer. Her poetry, creative prose, and academic articles have been published in a wide range of journals and anthologies. She has also published three collections of critical essays on Arab and third world women: Going Global: The Transnational Reception of Third World Women Writers, coedited with Amal Amireh (Garland 2000), Etel Adnan: Critical Essays on the Arab-American Writer and Artist, coedited with Amal Amireh (McFarland 2002), and Intersections: Gender, Nation, and Community in Arab Women's Novels, coedited with Paula Sunderman and Therese Saliba (Syracuse University Press, 2002). She now lives in Cyprus with her family.