Bourj el-Barajneh
Beirut is burning
but all eyes turn to
la tour Eiffel,
thirty years older
than mandates leaving
French to echo
through Lebanon’s streets.
Echoes like
bomb blasts
screams reverberating
in French
in Arabic,
language of attacker
and attacked,
screams reverberating
from Ghazze to Damascus
from Paris to New York
screams reverberating
across countries
and cultures
and illusions of difference.
Echoes like
arguments
like hateful words
flung from podiums
and protests alike.
Echoes like
muffled cries
in overcrowded camps
constant
like the influx of oppressed
across borders stretched
as thin as resources
blurred as much as morals
constant
like tears that spill into
Nahr al-Kabir al-Janoubi
as women cross its waters
seeking salvation
seeking salvation
from tears
from muffled cries
from hate
and screams
and bomb blasts
that reverberate
in every language
bomb blasts
that have no need
for linguistic shackles
bomb blasts
that travel 3200 kilometres
in moments
faster than a whisper
in French
in Arabic
through the echometric arches
of le Panthéon.
***
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Photo by Surian Soosay /Flickr
