Maybe I Hold a Moment Like This in My Memory

Perhaps it is just after dawn and I have come up to the rooftop for the cool morning air. Maybe I haven’t slept all night; restless with too many thoughts. Thoughts about what has happened to us — me and my fellow townspeople. About what has been imposed upon us. We, who belong to a corner of this land; any corner where the palm trees grow.

I imagine that, drawn by the hope that the sunrise breathes into me, I’ve come up to the top of the roof, thinking maybe a breeze will blow from somewhere, to lift the humidity and touch my sticky skin. Perhaps suddenly I feel a strength to carry on returning to me. And then my eyes might fall on two or three others — maybe they too couldn’t sleep last night. I think that after seeing them something weighs on my heart and yet warms it at the same time — just like the moment captured in this photo.

The place of the picture is not certain and we don’t know if the sun will rise or set but I imagine I have spent some hours in a place somewhere like this. Just a little like this.