Rumi sets God and me up on a blind date and we meet in his field, hidden away from the haram police. He has long hair and guitar-calloused hands and the oldest eyes you’ve ever seen. Around us, the world burns; I laugh and tell him we need to stop meeting like this. He tells me how the mullahs won’t let him into his own homes, the mosques built in […]
It’s been a while since I’ve talked to the clown with the framed degree. I can feel the same tremors roar their way home again. The volcano smirks and I can’t keep it down anymore; it bubbles in my pulse with a red froth. Dad has taken the blue road again; I can see him walking with his hands in his pockets. Away. Where the daughters are sane and the wives […]
Hollow height entombs the space—causing withdrawal. Ceilings ping-pong the babel of TV from distant walls, stirring the phonetic mash of languages—coming—and going. Rooms—as large as football fields— Lilliputian the milling crowd lost and lonely. sterile gray tones wrap around the folks arriving departing travelers rush fleet-footed through turnstiles cogs spinning within full aisles Wheels within wheels—of mind—of conveyer belts—of scrolling flight times—of luggage carts—of taxis. Though their destinations are unknown: […]
Lichen patches and rust almost erase my family name from the kerosene can letterbox. Rata twines around the gate, kikuyu fingers stretch and join across the track. The milking shed, roof broken by a weight of stars, crouches sway-backed against the sky. Moonlight fills its windows, spills through gap-toothed walls, lies in lozenges along the grass. Creamy fog pours down the creek, circles the swamp, backs […]
Melancholy Hyperbole 