End-of-Year Sale
By Basman Eldirawi
Translated by M Lynx Qualey
The city now seems like the most fitting place
for an end-of-year sale.
Bodies are free today,
you just have to decide:
Do you want them whole, or chopped, or minced?
Raw or burned?
The holiday season approaches
but happiness lost its legs last year.
The sale does not include wheelchairs.
Santa was killed last year
and his inheritors don’t know how to cross a black sky
…………..where doors have been lost.
What gifts will they bring to the city?
Christ decides to celebrate despite the pain
but a cross appears on his back.
It clings to him, and he is unable to walk
…………..even along his Via Dolorosa.
A child in the city closes his eyes for a wish,
but even these small acts of imagination
…………..that try to flee death
…………..are haunted by ghosts.
Basman Eldirawi (also published as Basman Derawi) is a physiotherapist and a graduate of Al-Azhar University in Gaza in 2010. Inspired by an interest in music, movies, and people with special needs, he contributes dozens of stories to the online platform We Are Not Numbers.