Jessy Assy

across from these two little

prickly plants

that politely rest on my

white windowsill at home,

Jbeil seems so far

and Beirut,

almost unreachable.

And yet Lebanon itself

-- all its cities inclusive --

is the same time zone as Israel,

[my enemy country]

two hours behind Armenia,

[my native homeland]

and six hours ahead of New York

[your native homeland].

I could go on and on

listing our relative coordinates:

six hours ahead of Canada,

[a possible immigration destination]

nine hours behind Australia,

[a probable immigration destination]

and a measly one hour ahead of Germany

[a far-fetched dream immigration destination].

But through my itinerary

one thought recursively

resonates

repeating itself endlessly

in loops:

if we could but find

that which travels faster

than light

we may very well

keep doubling up

on the memories

as I’d celebrate New Year’s here

then suddenly find myself

there

and over there

and farther beyond there

celebrating the same events

again, and again, and again.

If only we could

invent such a spaceship

that would travel

across time and space

I could finally find many ways then,

to have been with you

and be with you

and expect to be with you

in some black hole

someday

some place

where time is both infinite

and frozen.