Poet Explores Effect of a Nation’s Sudden Change
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In The Thing about Feathers, Arab-American poet and playwright Nathalie Handal invokes the powerful emotions of those who flee their homelands. An excerpt from her upcoming book “Poet in Andalucia.”
We kept only the keys,
letters, and photos–
everything else stayed behind
when we left the house.
That can happen when
a nation changes overnight,
when those you know
turn into
a gate of feathers–
and the thing about feathers is,
they know what’s been missed.
For years I watch
my neighbor’s house
from others’ windows–
different countries,
various homes,
some of brick, some of stone.
Some never imagine
what a home can mean
when an unfinished tune
traps the ceiling.
I pretend
never to have
seen a body midair,
a father’s hands
planted on the ground–
after all
what we don’t admit to
never happened.
But I couldn’t
change that day in Murcia,
when water brought light
to the door:
I am seven
it is the day before our departure,
the day my father
gives me a notebook,
and I tell him,
this is where I’ll keep my country.
Poet Explores Effect of a Nation’s Sudden Change
The Thing about Feathers, from “Poet in Andalucia,” forthcoming Spring 2012, University of Pittsburgh Press.
Nathalie Handal is the author of numerous books including, “Love and Strange Horses,” winner of the 2011
Source: Women’s eNews
