for Ahmed Al-Jumaili
the woman announced
“please proceed to gate g, as in god.”
g as in 99 divided by 11
then re-imagined
as in the buildings de-imagined,
turned upside down
and shaken out one September,
which we call the same as
the American flag
which we call freedom
which is the number we call
when we want god
to appear as an ambulance
which is the number that was called
21 days after Ahmed Al-Jumaili
boarded a plane through gate g
(fingers stretched toward
that same promise)
because his blood was coloring
a blooming peony on the snow
(a pomegranate shot through,
exploding house of jewel)
red as a wet 9, red as a siren
red as stripes on a flag, red as hell.
after I read about the death
of Ahmed Al-Jumaili
I dreamt of a gate and plane
a man and his wife walking toward it
with every dream balled up in their fists
and their shoes filling with blood.
•
interpretation of dreams
when you dream of someone trying to shoot you, it can mean there is a filmy window between your ribs that must be shattered by cold air.
I wake up with my neck tensed and aflame, as if I had been straining in my sleep to see through the dusty glass, its hairline fractures.
***
when I was a child we had a cellar that smelled of deep earth.
I liked to run my hands over the stony walls, feeling safe.
**
when running, I sometimes fear the way I cannot see the end of the road as it
curves over the ground’s open palm
I run faster until darkness
until I feel slightly nauseous
until my surest sense is the sound
of my shoes pushing gravel around.
***
but when you dream of running with a bullet trailing you
it can mean you are chasing your tail
that you’re just a lonely yard dog
with a bad sense of sight.
•
