Import/Export

Six fresh oranges in the short grass on the grave of the founder of an import/export company, born in Aleppo. A toddler strains against his mother’s grip: Ball! How to explain the Silk Road, the souk, the once-unassailable hospitality of merchants? How to explain torture, a feast of agonies called the magic carpet? A cricket plays his hit single. Ball. Ball. Such longing! In Syria, they say a narrow spot can contain a thousand friends.