Byblos: Past and Present
Katie O'Sullivan – United States

Byblos Past

Sometimes when her housework was done,

she climbed the wall-clinging patio stairs to reach the flat roof.

Shaded by grape vines,

she lay on her belly across a discarded mattress,

watched peoples’ busyness on the castle square below.

If the hour was early, hawkers of postcards, worry beads,

evil eye talismans and embroidered silks set up booths.

The hubbly-bubbly man arranged tobacco for his water pipes,

the custodian swept smooth the castle’s dusty steps.

If she arrived later, she spied tourists clutching guide books,

hesitating between castle or port, waving away eager guides.

A sign, Lemonada – 25 Piasters, beckoned the thirsty invaders

who were intrigued by the small Arab entrepreneurs

whose blonde hair, she heard them guess,

was inherited from the Crusaders.

They would be wrong.

The sellers were her kids performing the American rites of summer,

until chased off by local vendors.

Once, at night,

when humanity was sucked to sleep,

the melding of earth and sea lost in a circle of black,

she climbed the stairs and found herself

enclosed by a fishnet of brilliants, flung by a giant hand.

Standing quiet, she pulled the nearest ice-edged star to her chest,

and waited

until dawn gave back the horizon.

Byblos Present

Curious traveler of the internet,

I finger the mouse,

searching for the town

I loved best … remembered best.

           and panic

when finding within its website

a public relations blurb:

of festivals, jazz musicians,

stadium seating,

metered parking lot,

air fares and hot sweet deals,

clustered

with whoring popups,

pimping cookies.

I close the window,

lest it burn in my memory.

I click and find in Documents

my own reminiscence:

the sun’s first caress

along an eastern ridge,

trellised grapevines, lemon trees,

quiet cobbled streets, fishing boats,

ancient, fallen columns,

twilight lingering in

shadow-filled archways,

evening softness melding into night,

somewhere a dog barking.

 *Byblos is a coastal town in Lebanon.