Homebound (Zone 1 & 2)
by Sarah Badr, 2008
(133 x 200 cm) x 2 giclée print panels

Route 242

Here again.

Wet,
plugged in
and waiting;
I wonder how long
it will take to get
me home tonight.

Clambering on,
step-swipe-step,
detachment sits down
on furniture unmoved,
itchy patterned fabric
as the distant sounds
emitting from my ear
drown out the noise
of light and smoke.

Step-Swipe-Step,
It’s her again.

Same old woman,
that silent shadow
seated in my row
every night in a row,
by now having learnt
all there is to know
short of knowing
each other’s names.

Ours this hour
is a knowledge
of destinations:
stops in streets
on invisible paths
leading to the
nearby places
on the east-side
of nowhere,

Perhaps.

She reads my guilt
as I read my book:
page by page,
line by line,
every word
by every
punctuated
word,

Period.

I feel her gaze.
I turn the page.

Mare Street turns
into Morning Lane,
and all that buffers the
space between flesh
and the sense of eyes
is the anonymous disposition
to which we resign ourselves
on wheels unyielding–
awash with curiosity
in the gaps between
the rush-hour traffic,

Again.

– Sarah Badr

© 2008. S.H.Badr, All Rights Reserved.