I Suffer a Phobia Called Hope - Maya Abu Al-Hayyat

[Larry Robinson]

I Suffer a Phobia Called Hope

Each time I hear that word
I recall the disappointments
that were committed in its name:
the children who don’t return,
the ailments that are never cured,
the memory that’s never senile,
all of them hope crushed
beneath its wings as I smash
this mosquito on my daughter’s head.


The grieving have only the unknown.
It’s their only staple and inheritance.
Pain has no logic. All things redeem
the grieving except your rational questions.


I wish that no one goes
and no one comes.
All going is a stroke of myth
and each return
a punctured lung.

      - Maya Abu Al-Hayyat
         (Translated by Fady Joudah)




"Be joyful though you have considered all the facts."
    - Wendell Berry