We could hear the dry coughing of our landlord, Khuta Kursua, through the partition wall, and Mother’s eyes were wide with fear. I was ten, my own lesions had barely healed, and now we were neighbors…

She moved quickly and purposefully, as though she were handling walrus flippers or deer legs, not human hands.

“All decent Jews go to America.”

“Salamalaykum, Uncle, your nephew sent me. Said you’d give me the cash.”

Soul, you are a street, leading into rain / from the outskirts full of dry leaves

As long as the image of the enemy is being concocted out of gays, I must make all my public statements exclusively as a gay man.

Someone rushes to a house that’s been moved away.