WEBVTT

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And this one ''Dahlia and
Fadwa'', different speaker.

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''When I see her come through
the orchard toward my house I

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begin composing answers
to the words with which

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she'll challenge me.

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Her vision, precise and
focused, as if every letter

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were drawn beforehand.

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She stops, stoops toward
a flower she doesn't pick,

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and the word I'm
left is, sister.

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As if she were coming
to visit a younger

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sister after a long absence.

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As if this stranger's house
were where she'd watched

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my awkward gestures
flower to eloquence.

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As if I had measured her words
from a wider world each time

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a letter arrived, message
inhabited by a vision.

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But I was the only
messenger of my vision.

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My father died.

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There was no brother or
sister, but the orphan's

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clan of branching letters.

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I taught myself.

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I moved from house to house with
a dented trunk, a few books,

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many words, and acid fruit
preceding its own flower.

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Am I named for a
traitor or for a flower?

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Blood and fire have cindered
and stained my vision.

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I curse their politics,
they praise my words.

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What answer can I give my older
sister when I open the door?

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Welcome her into my
house and she hands

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me the incriminating letter?

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Well, I imagine opening a
letter after scouring the sink,

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dusting a loaf with flour,
that tells me my house

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no longer is my house.

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Beyond the window and
my field of vision,

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my son is shouting
something to his sister.

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And it's hard all at once
to make out their words.

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But in my yellow kitchen
these are only words

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I can pronounce correctly in
the letters of my sister's

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language.

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Language that is sister to mine.

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I watched her flame and
flower as boys threw stones,

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spliced shots on television.

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And felt the leaning
walls of my bright house.

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In that threatened house,
at a loss for words,

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my letter would be
subject to revision.

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Flow or gutter.

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Never reach my sister''.

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