I want to cut right through to the word house. It is opaque. It ends at the Indo-European root kus, which is of uncertain meaning but is related to ku and sku, which both mean to cover, to conceal, from which we have skin and hide. I am reminded of the color of my skin, its opacity, and my mind wanders.
Everyone knows not to cross Kobe’s sidewalk. It’s an unspoken rule, an urban legend. The only people who adhere to it are tourists or suburban Atlantans. Atlanta is a summer city. Most people usually go […]
Blood spurted from his nostrils in twin rivulets, coursing down his cheeks. It cascaded over his lips, gathering in his mouth before overflowing into viscous streaks down his chin. A crimson torrent shot from the […]
I don’t remember the exact day I realized I did not belong in my own life. Maybe it was the morning the adhan drifted over Karaye like a weary breath, calling the world awake while […]
1. Pigeons will always eat before you do.2. The police torch is never looking for good news.3. Newspapers keep you warm if you don’t read them first.4. Names are lighter than blankets—you can carry them […]
desideratum—for A. we are nomads: refugees displaced by the cartography of becoming, striding uncharted courses withhandfuls of hope for sustenance. before refugees, we were residentswith claims to home. but home was the nirvana we never […]
A place that only ever was. Where once there was a table, & a chair, & a plate. A cup—water. Cold. Bowl of salt. Walls warmed by breath.When one stood next to the other, the […]
At the Gates My mother’s spirit is everywhere, and I am a coward who has run away from home in the name of healing. I have left my father with the loneliness of the giant […]
Do you know the feeling of losing home in your own country? the act of carrying it beneath your feet and God upon your tongue. Inhaling the smell of war through your nostrils. A boy […]
ICE “And paving stones like Jocko Graves, the slave of General Washington, who froze to death, enfolded in snow on the banks of the Delaware River. His lantern out in front of him, awaiting his […]