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Here It Is

Issue 105, Summer 2019

Photo via Unsplash

 

Here it is Ramadan
and I forgot to pray
I can think only of you

Here it is iftar
and I forgot to eat
I’m banqueting on a spice
that’s not on this table

Here it is nightfall
I forgot to switch on the lights
There is a chandelier
in my ribcage

Here it is dawn
and I’ve forgotten—
what is it 
I am to do by sunrise?

Oh yes: Slip away,
die, live—
Here it is.


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Mohja Kahf

Mohja Kahf’s most recent collection is Hagar Poems. She is a professor of English at the University of Arkansas.