Dua for [         ]

Sarah Ghazal Ali

he was named for the Eighth            his hands a source of light

   nails small moons in bloom            ringed fingers I didn’t inherit

                 let me be a mirror             let me rupture the foil

                                 help me            help him climb through

            man is adam is aadmi            I understand lineage

            woman is eve is aurat            is eyes on bare skin

            do you prefer his song          its defectiveness

         to mine? please listen to          my hair exposing

      me, loose and unaware of           itself.

                       my brother —            he once vanished

                                  a button          like Yunus in the whale

                               an amulet           in his stomach something

                   I neglected to see           round and astonishing, something

                                                         I now know was divine.

 

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