From Strangers in Light Coats: Selected Poems, 2014–2020, which was published in November by Seagull Books. Translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger.

I was born into the Christian households of Beit Jala,
the spacious stone homes
over the olive presses
where in autumn the heavy millstones turn
and the Arab women cross themselves
as the oil gushes down the runnels and the deep odor curls
                  beneath the arches, beneath the decades.

I was born among women
into the stream of hymns,
     when Sundays had the scent of mint tea
         on…