Between us is a street
Not for cars or footsteps,
The green of pastures
Without pastures,
The blue of the sea
Without sea.
Between us, a street or less.

Inside us, a winding road wanders—
You sing Abdelhalim, the road sings along,
Your melancholy whistles tangle
Through the cypress trees laughing,
Fantastical and profound
Like birds.

Between us, a street
Learning the alchemy of scent
From the fragrance of our shirts,
Our words distilling Amman
Into one street.
Between us, one street or less.

If orchards could peer inside us,
They’d see their own image—
Wild pomegranates aflame
In the darkness of our bodies,
Night dew rising from lilac lips,
The earth beneath our hands
Drinking to the kafs and the nuns
Of a language merging lakefronts with sky
In the street between us,
A street or less.

If this longing could ebb,
Only the earth would remain.
We’d fly across borders
Like wind-borne dust
Across all that separates us,
One step at a time,
Or less.