Limb and Language and Other Poems

By Miree Antar

Limb and Language

Turning hands back and forth,  
elbow arches and the little purple marks  
from years gone—  
what more is there to grab onto?

Like cats posted by the window,  
what’s worth absorbing?  
When every idea and structure  
is half made and out of reach?

I’ve learned more from burning fingers  
than anything written,  
and the shapes of my limbs—  
at every twist—  
turn to form words.

Peeling lips and the ways they form,  
a body’s routine,  
the language of footsteps on the stairs  
— the only translation that matters.

Window of Eyes

Your open windows, not a care 
for wandering eyes,  

Brown, blue, green, all eyes 
from the same canopy lies.  

Screaming sirens, lazy lovers—
all out the window.

Neighbors and none of knowns, 
the streets below a thick stitch that I follow.  

The stretch from ground to sky,  
A stairway to finally reach that unpaintable canvas—
through the window.  

Porthos

No, nothing's wrong, but here is the song  
You've been looking for.  
I tell you it's this way— 
And you follow me.  
The story's plot is bad, but it's well written.  
We attach too much importance to  
Making things make sense.  
I tell you yes—  
I go back behind the shelves—  
Thinking is too much work.  
That musketeer—Porthos—  
Who formed his first thought  
After bombing a cellar—  
Everything must be thought of now—
his feet and his hands.
Now he can dream— 
Now his own mind—the violence—
the new bomb he carries.

Destined Space

My father's knees could stand for days,
built from his own fathers splintered palms.
His dreams have walked miles past,
Far and wandered wider in separate ways,
Into the open sea between what he knew
and where he found himself to be.
What raft could hold dreams of a man
Whose only dream is to go back?
Broken wood and glass amassed
To build what would have been a castle
To a boy who would rumble praise
As the boats docked at azure bays 
met their destined space.

Miree Antar is a Lebanese poet and software engineer based in New York City.Passionate about language, literature, poetry, and taking photos of her friends on 35mm film.