Nathalie Handal Poems

The shadows of birds fading on a fighter's back
The undressing of words on an unstamped postcard
The wet swings in the distant park
...

When the white trees are no longer in sight
they are telling us something,
like the body that undresses
...

I don't know if I left the window open,
or the electric fireplace on,
not sure if my name is Natalya or Navarro,
...

I traveled nowhere where I could not be found.
I knocked on every neighbors' door, stole every pillow,
wiped away the ants on my kitchen table, leaned against
...

The phone line is on fire,
my cousin's spirit in flames
as she tells me
about Dar Al-Kalima
...

A cup of empty messages in a room of light,
light that blinds & blinded men lined up
the young are unable to die peacefully, I hear a man say.
...

You greet me only with your eyes.
That evening you write to me
on a starless night,
...

We say lightning has no wings
when it slides down our houses
...

This is what I see:
a grain of wheat in the hand of a small boy
...

the negrita cries, I hide
not to deceive the darkness
or myself…
...