To Love Each Other in Arabic

for Wajih

“I want from love only the beginning.”
—Mahmoud Darwish

To engrave on each other’s bodies the touch entombed in bygone soils
To learn other languages so we can throne Arabic the language of love
To find joy in us and laugh at our own jokes—again and again and again
To kiss each other’s eyes knowing that kissing on the eyes draws loved ones apart
To choose one another on the dance floor and ask, “Are you comfortable with my touch?”
To gaze into our brown eyes and smile when the other looks away
To rub my beard on your beard and stroke each other’s dicks in a crowded night club
To drink your sweat and my sweat and thank one another
To sing together to the trees until they stop weeping
To only love me in Arabic because English has no synonym for “تقبرني” (may you bury me)
To only love you in Arabic because Arabic should not be loveless
To leave North Africa and Southwest Asia so we can trace each other’s faces
To carry the night and its utterances and our semen in a hasped box
To want from love only the ending