The flight to Egypt, 1984. Artist: Sliman Mansour

I’m trapped in a looping,
haunting dream
with two of me.

An infant, a grown man.
Hypnotized, I move around.
An eerie place I’ve never seen
yet my body somehow recognizes:
a haven,
a grave.

I reach a fallen house,
a featureless pile of wreckage.
I find my way through a crack.
I stand there, blocking sunlight,
until my eyes make out a scene:
a fair-faced woman kneels
clutching a swaddled cloth,
rocking it lightly with a hint of fear.

The baby cries.
I shake with sobbing.
She starts nursing him.
Relieved, I fall to my knees,
opening the path for a bullet
that comes to rest in her head.

The baby eagerly feeds
under his new crimson shroud.
My legs are locked to the ground.
Again.
I have killed her again.