Mama said Ain broke Waleed’s leg,

burst the water pipes,

turned the Venetian skies upside down that one summer.

She even gave our new neighbor a heart attack. 
I imagined her,

the sequined skirt suits, the frown,

the purple sacks under her eyes,

front row at every birth, wedding, funeral.

Only the name of God tamed her eyes. 
When the war began, Baba disappeared,

us in a foreign place, our calls to Kuwait unanswered.

I scoured the earth for her, protested with banners

the size of elephants, yelled mashallah after his name

thousands of times. 
He came back. 





Ain Al Hasoud is the Arabic term for the Evil Eye.