Minor Detail

by Adania Shibli

The borders imposed between things here are many. One must pay attention to them, and navigate them, which ultimately protects everyone from perilous consequences.

There are some people who navigate borders masterfully, who never trespass, but these people are few and I’m not one of them.

Solitude is so forgiving of trespassed borders;

And the situation has been like this for such a long time that there aren’t many people alive today who remember little details about what life was like before all this,

sometimes it’s inevitable for the past to be forgotten, especially if the present is no less horrific;

Well, no going back now, not after crossing so many borders, military ones, geographical ones, physical ones, psychological ones, mental ones.

And as soon as my feet cross the threshold, leaving the sticky heat that weighed heavily on the courtyard behind me, shivers rise through my body, in response to the cold air being expelled toward me by the air conditioning.

such is war; sometimes it even severs ties between members of the same family.

This is Rafah, which will soon swallow the sun as it sets.

I steal glances at her as I drive, at part of her face, which is lined with sharp wrinkles, then at her hands, which she lets rest in her lap, on the fabric of her black dress, and they seem stronger than any hands I’ve seen in my life. They’re traced with blue veins that recall the lines on the maps I tossed into the back seat when I stopped the car to take her with me.