[stanza] [lineate]A thing must have hands[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate indent=10][to mourn][/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]what it cannot touch[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]//[/lineate]
[stanza][lineate]Define in, I say when anyone asks[/lineate]
[lineate]if I’ve ever been in a war. I smoked[/lineate]
[lineate]pot with a boy who refused to[/lineate]
[lineate]marry me. I slept through the[/lineate]
[lineate]airport bombing. When the [/lineate]
[lineate]window facing the street shattered,[/lineate]
[lineate]I kept a piece in my mother’s glove[/lineate]
[lineate]compartment.[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]//[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]Sometimes I’ll make myself thin[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate indent=10][enough][/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]to slip through walls[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]//[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]But if you don’t name the tree[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]My grandmother’s couch milks itself into the carpet[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]how can you love it[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]//[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]Palestine, a name that means[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]//[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]The worst ghosts are the ones that don’t come back.[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]//[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]The officer at JFK scans me. My body, ghost-white, flickering on his screen.[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]Pretty boy. Blue eyes.[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]Takes my fingerprint and winks.[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]Cheer up. You’re home.[/lineate]
[stanza] [lineate]~ Hala Alyan[/lineate]
Hala Alyan is an award-winning Palestinian American poet and clinical psychologist whose work has appeared in numerous journals including The Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner and Colorado Review. She resides in Manhattan.