Artist: Nada Al-Khatib

I sit alone on my rooftop at sunset
gazing at the sky.
Cold breezes kiss my face,
once gentle, once poetic.

For a moment
I feel like the whole universe is mine
and the sky, my sky
is holding me so tightly,
and softly,
making me euphoric.

But before my fantasy could
last five minutes,
as I sing Fairouz’s “A Little House in Canada,”
imagining a new life
and drowning with its beauty,
an explosion interrupts me,
shattering my song
and turning my clear sky
into a somber grey.

And without warning
it reminds me
that no matter how hard I try
to fly away, far away,
even only with my imagination,
this voice will come after me
and pull me back to my reality.

I can hear it whispering to me
that fear will still be my companion,
that being here alone,
at this hour,
is not serenity
but danger.