[Duwar] Al Manara

Every city has its famous landmark-for Ramallah, you are it.

You are not intimidatingly tall or formidably wide; I can see around you and above you. But you are firmly planted and unyielding--as is your place in our hearts.

You are the "0" from which the Y and the X axes stem; you are a point of origin.

And you exemplify origins--you've stood for decades, and you've witnessed: conversations, intifada, break-ups, fights, proposals, establishments, demonstrations. You've seen your surroundings grow and relax and change. Oh what spirits and auras must be revolving around you and taking refuge in you so as not to be forgotten.

I remember the first time I drove passed--it was a summer night in 2000, and we were headed to Muntazat Ramallah. Peering out of the backseat window, I saw you veiled in hues of pale green light and decorated with banners and strings and people waiting for their somethings. You were popular but not pretty, and you've remained that way.

I wonder if you ever were pretty. I wonder if when you were new and naive, you had a youthful glow. Or were you already withered when christened, already tired of the future that would befall you and your city's dwellers.

...around you, the city certainly dwells..

When I am closest to you is when I lose sight of you, for eyes are never shy around you, and when I walk within your vicinity, eyes are all I see--eyes of those coming toward me, staring, as shoulders approach and then glide by each other in opposing sways. I look passed, to you, and continue.

And as you are the city's sight/site, you are also its sound. I can not think of you without hearing the hum that surrounds you--cars, horns, sya7, whistles, laughter, footsteps all in unison creating a loud, white noise. One doesn't realize how loud your pep rally is until after (s)he has drifted away from you, down the X and Y axes...to Venus to Baladna to il muntaza to ZAMN to their houses, and definitely to Beitilu, and even to Qalandiya.

Yet, even if I can lose the sound of you and the sight of you, and see above you and around you...

...I can not know Ramallah without you.