welcome

                                          i was born    i was planted

             at the rupture the root where    land became ocean became land anew

i split from my parallel self i split from   its shape refusing root in my fallow mouth

           the girl i also could have been    cleaving my life neatly

 & her name / easy / i know the story    & my name / taken from a dead woman

          all her life / my mother wanted    to remember / to fill an aperture with

                   a girl named for a flower    cut jasmine in a bowl

                          whose oil scents all    our longing

                                   our mothers /    our mothers’

                                    petals wrung    wilting

                              for their perfume    garlands hanging from our necks

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yasmeen

Safia Elhillo

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