burning photos if i thought burning your photographs could make you disappear how wrong i must have been i set your polaroids to light i set those paper-back frames to embers and i watched as they burned burned burned but those picture grew flaming they disintegrated into ash alive they drowned me in their smoke and sunk me in your memories the colors of the photos were screaming they were brighter than they had ever been marred under a kaleidoscope of reflection they spoke to me in stories those pictures burning so desperately sent torn shards your face spinning your […]
buried
buried i closed the lid on the coffin door the wood rough against my hand edges planting splinters my fingertips a reminder of the inside hemmed nails and spikes draining the life of something still gasping for air their ragged breathing silenced by the slam of something unwanted i planted the coffin deep inside beside the rumbling of my stomach and the thundering of my heart my running blood rocking it in place burning holes into my muscles shocking volts up my brain’s electric and it was more alive inside its confines but i pretended not to hear it banging […]
bloody
bloody liquid courage burns fiery down my throat sending spirals through my mind drunken haze that will never arrive pales in comparison to the nausea of this guilt ridden trip past bloodshed the sear of honeyed spiked mead does not bring me the flying grace of the coppery tang of blood i long for the taste of metallic death the one i have just barely escaped wounds i healed to ugly scars remind me of the pain i wish to inflict this violent desire to break hearts to leave them shriveled and unbeating as mine did so long ago in […]
Ink is running out
Ink is running out Quickly, my child You must spill your words Let your story escape from The confines of your mind You must speak your truth Each syllable, each syncopate You must reach for the depths Of your souls, broke and hurt You cannot find in yourself any longer Quickly, my child You must flip these pages of your Jarring faerie-tale ending And rewrite the lines of error Regrets and past promises That could not be redone Must leave your soiled papyrus So write till your hands bleed Like the ink of your fountain nib Twisting sentences into a […]
ocean child
ocean child clear blue skies and the sun parting through the clouds her voice spoke to me like sun streaming through azure her voice spoke to me when clouds were whisked away with wind sea salt breeze ruffling the sea and gulls floating on its pull her standing by my side sent me floating on the summer breeze her hands in mine sent me soaring over blue and sandy shores blue waves, dissolving seafoam and the whirlpools left behind her laugh hit me like the loud crashing of the waves on the shore her laugh left me like […]
Border
Ramallah, Palestine; “Shira? Shira, get up.” My mother roused me from my cramped bed while my brother still slept. Her eyes were dark and ran with circles. She was worried and sleepless after so many nights without my father. She had to work extra shifts over the past few days and the work had ripped calluses in her hands and frazzled her. Every time he left for work across the border, it took him as many as five days to return. The ordeal sent my mother spiraling, worrying each time that he would not come back from his job, and […]
Dreams
As she lays her head down to sleepShe dreams of a world of love and of peaceShe dreams of a place where everyone smilesA place she would want to raise her child. Where her mothers and sisters can walk late at nightWhere her brothers are not shot because their skin isn’t lightWhere her friends can live with whoever they pleaseWithout fearing guns at their temples, and batons at their knees. Where the government is for the people, and not just for someWhere human rights are promised to every single oneWhere all have education, clean water, clean airWhere the poor are […]
Marginalized
“Atifa? Won’t you eat? You must look healthy when the guardians come”. The nurse held the steaming hot bowl of porridge near my sister’s face as she looked away blankly. I had long stopped forcing her to eat and drink when the nurses had come with the meager bowls of food. I had forced down the bowl only a few minutes ago, so I would look “healthy”. The guardians who came for adoption often picked the strongest, the ones who looked “normal” enough to fit in with their privileged neighborhoods, ones that didn’t drag attention and raised questions. That was […]
