DTW ✈
The Detroit International Airport
The last time I’d been here was to hug my mami
hoping for a see you later, but felt more like goodbye
Not even a year later
my shaky hands hold a black and white sign,
“YOU ARE WELCOME HERE”
Who am I to welcome someone else to this country that doesn’t belong to me?
Who am I to welcome you to the entrapment of Babilonia?
And somehow Babylon is safer than home
A Muslin woman quotes Jesus
Where are the Christians I wonder
The ones I know voted for the man who caused this mess
Not here
not here
not here
not here
“no ban, no wall”
“resist”
a holy prayer
It’s cold, let’s go inside
a woman gets off a plane
with no cell phone service
three languages but she doesn’t know mine
I don’t know hers
And my Arabic never made it past habibi
Maybe Spirit translated
‘cause I gave her my phone
she calls her son
I talk to him, he’s almost there.
I tell him there’s a protest
be careful
We go back outside
I don’t know whether to cry or fall to my knees
I do neither
I hold my little sign with my shaky hands
I get home
I call the son
he’s with his mother now
she’s safe
“I’m a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic – you need anything, you call me.”
I lost his number
but not his voice.
My sister says, “the movement needs people like you, the healers”.
Healer
like Jesus
healer
like my mami
healer
like
5 years later
A healer is all I ever want to be.