she lilts her head forward and sprawls her limbs onto the steel-black wheelchair
"i've been gaining 3 pounds of fluid a day. i'm just so sick"

i look at her orbits her legs and poke. no holes.
"where does the fluid go?"

"everywhere"

"but it's nowhere"

"it's there i can feel it"

"you don't need the water pills. you have no swelling"

"oh yes i do. what about the weight gains????"

attending and i have one bubble of thought diffusing into the unventilated room.
"maam, forget the water pills. it's liposuction that you need."

ideal worlds

in an ideal world there are no wars
in a less than ideal world there are wars of ideas

in lebanon there are only wars.

let's hope this one ends soon and heralds the birth of a new rejuvenated nation, after 2 years of this god-awful impasse.

les nanas

morning existentialism

i felt sick today. the first thing i thought at six o clock in the morning was that i didn't want to go take care of strange people any more. i'd much rather stay in bed because i'm the one who feels sick. why should i care about other sick people if i am sick? i got out of bed and trudged to work dragging my forlorn feet and my swollen eyes. not because i cared, but more because i did not want to be fired. (more to follow)

death

How long will it take for Gaza to die? This is the first thing I read this morning while the sun is shining and the birds are singing.

spring?

i'm still not sure if it's here

gum

her heart stopped working all of a sudden yesterday. she was compressed and mashed and smashed into life again. it took seven minutes. she almost made it to the other side. but was dragged back by many many whie coats. and now she is awake, looking at me, a day after her heart stopped.
'can i have some of your bubblegum?'