Flower - “The Disavowal”
The Speaker says, “For a year your hands were two flowers on my head.” The flower denotes the addressee’s flimsy childhood. The line recapitulates the speaker’s sensitivity of her son (the addressee) when he was a child.
Milk - “The Disavowal”
Milk embodies steadfast, idyllic motherhood. The speaker informs her son, “The white in your eyes is the milk of my breast.” Mothers nourish their newborn children with the milk before weaning to sustain them satisfactorily.
Sale - “Jerusalem Is Arab Nationalism's Bride”
Muzaffar Al-Nawab interrogates, “Who sold Palestine other than your enemies, O my country?/Who by God, sold Palestine and accumulated a wealth.” These questions insinuate that Jerusalem was embezzled from the Palestinians by entities that comprise egotistical leaders who were fascinated with advancing monetarily through the auctioning of Jerusalem.
