Standing on the balcony
I see the neighbor’s boy
His name is Ahmad
He’s small for his age
Has dark hair
And a broad nose

My mother tells me to steer far from him
Street kids are dangerous
They smell like broken families
Despair mixed with cocaine
But I like the neighbor’s boy

He visits every night
Yells my name from the streets
Until my mother runs to the balcony
And shoos him away

The whole neighborhood knows about us
And I hear them murmur
“But she’s such a sweet girl,
Why him?”

My grandmother tells me to marry rich
A stable man
Old enough to be mature
Young enough to not attract suspicions
And people tell me to leave the neighbor’s boy
He’s trouble
Has no future
Too broken to make him my home

I leave the neighborhood
Like many
But Ahmad stays behind
Like few
Still hugging the street lights
Swinging from electricity cords
Climbing up charred trees
Trying to reach the sky
With his skinny arm

And I wonder if Ahmad knows how much I love him
From miles afar
I still belong to him
The news mentions his name
So casually that I struggle to catch it
And when the moon rises at the opposite end of the Earth
I wonder if Ahmad will live in me forever
Or will he be forgotten

Just a passing name on the news
Just another pathetic story
Just another street boy
Just another dying countr