I always felt that she was leaving.
In her eyes, there were always sails being made for departure,
aeroplane crouching on her lashes preparing to take off.
In her handbag-ever since I married her- there was a passport,
an aeroplane ticket and visas to enter countries she had never visited.
When I used to ask her,
“And why do you have all these documents in your handbag?”
She would answer: Because I have a date with rainbow….
After they handed me her handbag which they found under the rubble and
I saw her passport, the aeroplane ticket, the entry visas,
I knew that I had not married Bilquis Al Rawi but married a rainbow….
-Nizar Qabbani
