To forget where I came from
To be silent in all the languages I speak
To give up the different dialects
mingled in my mind
To give up the desire to leave
a far-away street
before I feel what’s missing
To give up the man
who didn’t realize
when we made love
it would be impossible to hurt me
To give up all my maps
on Via della Conciliazione
where my lover held his foreign name
between his teeth
To give up my breath
to let the world bend
in my lungs like a branch
To give up my eyes
like scarred marble
to see an entire life in a window
releasing the heaviness of the fog
To give up traveling
to let an old sea reach a new sea
To forget all I gave up
to remember where I come from
to make it speak
Copyright © 2024 by Nathalie Handal. This poem was first printed in The Irish Times (February 10, 2024). Used with the permission of the author.