Olivia Elias, born in Haifa in 1944, is a poet of the Palestinian diaspora who writes in French. After a childhood in Beirut, she moved to Montreal, then Paris. Her first book in English translation, Chaos, Crossing and Other Poems, will be published by World Poetry Books in 2022.
Asma Ghanem / Courtesy of the artist
Hunger strike, fortieth day*
Your bodies flutter on the ceiling
of the room I can see your slow gestures
the small bones in the joints
of your hands y…