The Political City

“…it’s always a stranger who lifts and lowers our heft in the beginning. And in the end.”

Life Breaks In, Mary Cappello

My son receives his American passport on the same day Donald Trump becomes president of the free world. He receives his Lebanese identity card too; he will vote in Beirut and the U.S. someday. Just the week before, a man who scared off thousands of Lebanese into immigration in the late 80’s became Lebanon’s president twenty-five years later. Garbage burns still. The scent seeps through our windows late into the night, into years beyond us. In the morning, we cannot get to work on time as car wheels roll, stop, roll, stop and blood rushes. (Why is everyone SO RUDE? we scream into metal and glass. We want...