Safia Elhillo
forgive me i cannot teach you to say my name i am from
anywhere halved by water an english full of words i can spell
but cannot say i came here with a handful of names to mark up
the vagueness of my body african arabized colonized
i am sifting through all my silences practicing my pronunciations in the dark
in love with the aches that keep me company arabic brimming
with words i can say & cannot spell half-illiterate in my mother tongue
half-silent in my purchased fluency & yes what of all the water
i learned to swim & did not drown i cupped my ears with my hands & heard
it roaring inside my body thinning out my blood i heard the woman
who died whose name i carry i heard the ocean swelling daring me to cross