I used to seek refuge in the village by the river whenever its | Thoughts Hub

I used to seek refuge in the village by the river whenever its face turned pale and its wrinkles became imminent, and I evaporated the threshing-floors with prayers that stifled their intoxication, so that they would yawn for a long while, while evil faces popped in the bonfire, emerging from the fire, and then turning to ashes.

I was the watchman who saw the lantern go out in the room of the girl who wrote a song with henna on her palms, wrapped them in the white cloth and slept, the watchman who saw the angels support the water pitcher left on the roof to cool slowly as she wanted to slide it over the feverish child's head, I was the watchman who believed in his shadow rising on the tree and his long rifle orphans and lonely.

And the poor rejoice in their empty stomachs, and the dust of hunger falls on their shoulders from the ceiling of stolen dreams. My gun was an olive branch, and my house was where the grass grows. That is why I guard the village, and without a guard, I live as if I were sent all this night, while the dawn is stuck in an abandoned well on the hill.