In This Dream

For my student Abdel Salam Qatoush, an eight-year-old boy who lost his leg 
when his home was struck by a bomb during the war on Gaza
 

Leaning back against the tree,
I drifted into dreams —
before me, an endless expanse

I heard the earth whisper to the tree
whose branch had been snapped by the wind:
a stronger bud will grow, you’ll see,
in place of your missing limb

The dream spirited me away
to a mirrorless night, a realm
untouched by time.
There, I searched for the war,
and found it gone

The two crutches
that had become my constant companions
had turned into wings

I reached out my hand
to inspect my imperfect shadow,
to feel my missing limb —
and found that a bud had grown, green,
in the place where my leg
had once been

I ran over to play with my friends
and kicked the ball, for the first time,
straight into the goal — smiling from afar
into my beloved’s
admiring eyes

This is where I would
like to die, I said to the tree:
enveloped in this poem,
in this dream.

Translation from the Arabic