the island of djerba

everyone who lived in djerba liked to say, "djerba is not a real place."

djerba was full of small gods. you either believed you had special powers or you didn't.

. . .

(some argue that djerba is a very real place, by virtue of external referents. others say djerba is entirely apocryphal. a majority of djerba residents believe that the meaning of djerba is ever-shifting, and has become colonized in recent years. others reject the idea of djerba altogether and believe it to exist only as a discursive symbol. my parents wouldn't shut up about how i went to djerba. the sibyls believed that djerba itself does not exist but only becomes real elsewhere. )