ISSUE III
Nasser Alsinan
KEYHOLE PARADISE
paradise stems
from longing for a home. so i drink
from the rain when it collects
in my palms
and the child, who
has now appeared,
stays silent. the child
shows me his palms. i tell him
to open them towards
the sky, but he refuses. he says
there is no sky, only heaven
when the rain falls.
there is a keyhole
in the iris, softly puncturing
the pupil: a bullet
enters a scarf. this is the child’s
scarf. this is the moment
i clutch a pearl
and the child’s shadow
enlarges into
a shell. this is the moment we
begin measuring distance
from somewhere to nowhere.
Nasser Alsinan is from Qatif, Saudi Arabia. His poetry has been previously published in Barzakh, Bear Review, and The Shore. More of his writings can be found on his Twitter page @nasser_alsinan.