Neglect does not last with a person; it is a phase like any other in life, which one enters based on the cycle embedded within. This stage resembles early childhood, when we used to be nestled in embrace, sleeping often, listening to lullabies, cradled without protest, surrounded by natural, fragrant oils, creamy lotions, and sprinkled with white powder, emitting a unique scent. People would draw near, smelling, kissing, and hugging, living in a simple, limited world. As the child drifts from this innocence as far as they do from milk and maternal pulses, they begin changing, mingling with life and people, submerged in hardship, or they choose solitude, edging towards wildness.

I admit that I spent a long period of my life in heedlessness. It wasn't by choice but akin to fortune; everyone has a share of negligence, and mine lingered. Despite the circumstances, I lived it lovingly. The place of negligence wasn’t ideal, nor was the work a dream, but I made peace with it to a degree of harmony, like we find in a single fabric. That was my life amid workshops, noise, machinery, intrusive scents, black carbon, and oils saturating the space, the heavy greases, vast scrapyard piles of used parts, and unsightly debris.

The people I live with here are the joy of the place. Despite its seemingly grotesque nature, they possess hearts full of life. In this place, the world is very limited; thoughts are simple, and dreams are close enough to reach directly when stretching out. Negligence faded away when I found you, and the world expanded, life deepened, colors brightened. Your presence banished neglect, ushered in love, elevated dreams, complicated thoughts, and widened the universe. Awareness of you grew to the point where losing the means to live made everything disappear except wakefulness and your absence. Hence, I found no escape from you but to you, by attempts to ease slowly.

Publishing house: Arab Scientific Publishers/Lebanon

Number of Pages : 110

Year of publication : 2014