Seven Enclosures

Palestinian embroidery

49 quadrangles, green, carmine, orange
stiffen a black cotton backing
They are cross-stitched close together

but not touching – almost a vertical village
with sloping uncertain homes
and a few narrow, jagged lanes

where children can tumble and play
Sunlight limps among them
but the embroidery is beautiful and holds

Why, when was it cut from a thobe?
Long red stems grow in the alleyways
between the houses, branching, entering

and binding, so tall they surpass the village
in relief, and finally flower high up along
an uneven edge – where a patch
...