12 Roses for Bilqis

I always felt that she was leaving.

In her eyes, there were always sails being made for departure,

aeroplane crouching on her lashes preparing to take off.

In her handbag-ever since I married her- there was a passport,

an aeroplane ticket and visas to enter countries she had never visited.

When I used to ask her,

“And why do you have all these documents in your handbag?”

She would answer: Because I have a date with rainbow….

After they handed me her handbag which they found under the rubble and

I saw her passport, the aeroplane ticket, the entry visas,

I knew that I had not married Bilquis Al Rawi but married a rainbow….

-Nizar Qabbani