By DALIA TAHA
Translated from the Arabic by SARA ELKAMEL

from Ramallah

Ramallah Landscape, photograph by Dalia Taha

Enter Zakaria Mohammed’s Balcony

On Zakaria Mohammed’s balcony,”
we notice just how close
the settlement is.
Then we ignore it and drown 
in conversation, its lights
swelling before us
the way a car’s headlights
flood your whole existence
before its body of steel crashes into you.