Falastine is recent graduate of the Department of English Literature at An Najah University in Nablus, West Bank.

A Scratch
A Margin for a Nomad
Sing me an Arabian Night
There...
Identity...
On My Way to Nowhere...
The Star Needs to Fall...
Because There is No End...
Let Go
What is Left

A Scratch

My kingdom is here
No where
And I’m still the queen of questions
The mark that anything can remove
And there I put my ethereal crown
Where I can’t see
Where you don’t know
Keep on reading my books
And I’ll keep reading them my way
I’m still there
Don’t try to catch a wisp of light
Words are more meaningful
More silent
And darker than a braid
Of an ancient goddess
Who chose, to vehemently retire.

Ever thought why we’re so thrilled to look?
We’re always scared of extremes
When fancy is our only reality
I laugh, yet you’ve never realized
I’m wider than a momentary curve
That riddles the whim you don’t know about
But extraordinarily feel.
Let’s simply laugh
Sip what we have in our cups
Dip in the silence of overcrowded streets.

What’s wrong with an oriental woman
Wearing a lip ring?
What’s wrong with a goddess dispersed?
Inconsistent with passions, history and sheets?
I look at my thick mirror
And see nothing but a story telling a myth
Of an ancient goddess
Who carried fire and water in one hand
And created the world’s masterpieces
With the second
Within a second.

Shall we dance?
Music carries the capacity of creation
And creep with us to the core of passiveness
Where imagination, becomes a chewed theme.
I scratch the windows
To write my notes on the fog and send them
To an oriental goddess
Who would create me.

A Margin for a Nomad

I try to keep our basils green
But I am not a hero
And autumn has wrapped its’ shawl around us
And we will never have our coffee together.
You may not know that I don’t like coffee
But I can never forget that you said
It tastes like me
Tense but yet, sweet.
Now I know, coffee is not sweet
And so are your words.

I am not a hero
It’s meaningless to stand alone
When all the stories collapse
What’s our life without a story?
What would I say to my epithets?
Doctrines can’t give us love
Only principles can.

I am not myself anymore
Don’t remind me of my promises
My gushing passions
“Love itself is what’s left over
when being in love has burned away”*
I stand in the rows
Walk down all the ready made phrases
I prefer life beyond philosophies
And death… beyond sour words
But life is not you and I
And the rain writes its’ own poem
Where we are not.

We are two lost souls
Struggling to finish their last dance
While love sits in a dark corner
Waiting for the rain to fall
Wash our gestures
And give us a second chance
To be anyone, anything, but ourselves.

Nomads we will always be
Living in words
With nothing living inside of us
Nothing within
And our search will go on
Find your words and swords
And I’ll be looking for my home
A margin, where words can grow.

* Louise de Bernieres: Captin Corelli’s Mandolin.

Sing Me an Arabian Night

Sing to me an Arabian night
I’m trapped, trapped in history
Shahrazad, lost in despair
Playing with her Oud
Sewing words and times
Destiny loves notes played haphazardly
Clamorous tales of love
And severe words that rings a bell.

Sing me an Arabian night
A passion knows how to rise
Crash on the rocks of Sidon
And split the way back to Haifa
Jezebelknew how to itch the tides
Save testaments and rights
And cast spells with her glides
Upon the ancient kingdom.

Spare me an Arabian knight
For the word has been forsaken for years
Why did you come back?
Why did you bring Akbar to my bight?
He, who dropped the scepter for love,
Is my king
Listen to me, I am a Canaanite
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”

Create me an Arabian night
I have a feigned, cautious dream
Brother, are your feet on the ground?
I’ve roamed the deserts and the illusions
Yet you think I am a refugee!
Give your expectations a time
You don’t want my nightmare
To ruin what you’re thinking to imagine.

There…

At the corner of my window
There is an overwhelming question
There is a word
There is a thought
And there are miles drawling on the edges.

There is the shadow of someone
Gestures that I know
Smell of laughter
Echoes of a vow.

There is some breeze flowing somewhere
A shadow I can't touch
A sense I can't hunch
An answer waiting for a question
A secret I love not to know!
There is unforgettable expression.

On my window
There are thousand stars
There is a pillow
There are some old Greek jars
There is a willow…

Identity…

Cracks are expanding deep in Earth and on the moon surface
Nothing in life seems to be complete
Nothing seems to understand what's behind the mask
Nothing seems to observe the taste of the flowing beat.

I left my wallet back home
I walked bare-footed in the empty streets
I rolled down the jasmine seeds
I breathed the bird's victories and retreats
And yet nothing seemed to be complete.

I left my identity on the dusty desk
Stored all the missing puzzles inside
Tried to catch a wandering risk
Circled around the clock looking for a number
All I found is a sub-man lost in a cave of slumber.

When the shadows of butterflies locked my tears away
I threw the rancor rings in that rusty closet
I stepped ahead toward the garden way
And beyond the horizon I planted a bay
There the North Star whispered a secret I can't betray.

On My Way to No Where…

On my way to no where
I stood wordless in the wood
I heard Adam wailing deprived from heaven
Beside my foot there was a lotus flower
That added to my journey an essential leaven.

Walking down the valley
My mother up the hill stood and called
Don't grow old
Don't grow old
Don't leave your child behind

Trees and masks
Faces I know and others yet I don't
Down the valley is my hidden book
There is the wave I can ride to the skies
Down is buried million stars
There is the cave of Mohammad
And the last supper of Christ
Away from all the rotten scripts
That's so smelly to be served in the present or even the past. 

Call me my sacred child
Light up the wisdom frozen in me
Give me a key to open the earth
A secret word to transcend the galaxy
A color to paint suns on the sky of the North Pole
A deck to see my tarot cards
Glance to the future of the past
Have a portrait of the present
An idea about a time I do not realize
A life time compromise
Inspire me the perfume of eternity.

Going to no where
I witness shooting stars falling
The entire universe calling
The tulip flowers growing on the edges of time
Going to no where
I hold a pencil in my hand
To draw a house in my empty space
To collect the heart I adore
For infinity is knocking on the door.

The star needs to fall…

I need more sight to inspire me the vision of future
A pen to draw my path to the unknown
A sense of art to paint blank gesture
I need real colors to draw half empty picture
I need a picture.

Two steps ahead there is nothing but fog
All I can see is a hand messing with my papers
A book that is closed is my everything
A picture I don't posses is my everything
Some ashes is a tray is all that is left
The smoke of a candle is where I belong.

Burning…
A suitable word to begin with
A suitable expression to build my dreams on
All is falling except the words hanging on my wall
The world seems to be a dusty ball
And I'm wasting the puzzle part and whole
The star needs to fall.

Because There Is No End…  

Blank books on the desk
Within the pages written a whole story
A life time streams
An undiscovered glory
Meanings without words
Over used expressions
Nothing is like the truth
Not enough languages to tell the dusty visions.

Starts without end
Life moves in circles
Mysterious start and unknown end
The way gracious clouds transcend
Peel the onion and accept
You are nothing
But an essential concept
Just accept
The burned stars
The useless words
The passing years
Ever unanswered questions
All the exceptions
Just try
For the chances are passing by
Roses are passing by
Mountains are passing by…

A countless second is the expression of time
Insight lights and disappears all at once
All the ignored things seems to be precious
A motionless pillow
Separate worlds
Old words
Zeros and heroes
Mind without thoughts
Wrecks of old hearts and boats
A stone from the depth of earth
Death and birth
All is a very special words endless life whisper.

Let Go

Following the pattern of the shapeless floors
I was guided to nowhere and everywhere
To endless gateless kingdoms
I was guided to one single full stop
To a wave of boundless top
I was guided to where I came from
To nothingness…

Following the shapeless shapes
Tossing my coins I got heads and tales
I hug the welcome goodbye
And let go

Let go

Let go

Till I reached the ending dots of the falling walls
That never existed…

What is Left

A period between the two stops
Where I heard a call
Where I found my identity
A word that is lost in between
Leave it unsaid
And leave the gates closed
And leave me
To grow with my words
Leave me away
Where there is nothing but noise
Where there is nothing but life
Where there is nothing but old dishes.

Vastness is where my heart lies
The endless universe is my home
Don’t engage me with the silent walls
I’m the whisper of the flowing souls
The unique expression of universe
I am the sacred word of God
That carries blessings to those who are dead
And those who are alive
I’m the flowers sacrificed to the sun
Don’t miss the way and run.

I’m no more few letters
Don’t call me
I’m no more a number
Don’t count me
I am no more a face
I don’t belong to your human race
Go and finish your battle
And drink children’s dreams with your dinner
Go wherever
Lead your cattle
And on your way you will meet a shepherd
Ask him about your name
Ask where the starts fall
Ask him to search what is left
And take it with you there
To the no where.