My father’s song is playing and it’s heartbreak.

Mahmoud Ahmed’s blues on infinite loop.

I spindle back, away from the candles

into a darker heat. My mother’s belly

unswells, she doesn’t tumble down the stairs,

my brother reverts to a seed, then me.

There’s a woman walking away.

I'm unmothered. She gets back on a plane,

she never sends her picture, doesn’t talk.

She never sends her picture. Doesn’t talk.

She gets back on a plane. I’m unmothered.

There’s a woman walking away.

My brother reverts to a seed. Then, me.

She doesn’t tumble down the stairs.

My mother’s belly unswells into a darker heat.

I spindle back, away from the candles,

Mahmoud Ahmed’s blues on infinite loop.

My father’s song is playing and it’s heartbreak.