The Rising Phoenix Review posted: " our ride home home has always been on sand sometimes on the shore of coney island decorated with needlesin empty silver .25 cent potato chip bagsi reach for salt and bits caked in thåe bottom find pieces of people i used to knowi tell you their storie" The Rising Phoenix Review
home has always been on sand sometimes on the shore of coney island decorated with needles in empty silver .25 cent potato chip bags i reach for salt and bits caked in thåe bottom find pieces of people i used to know i tell you their stories over a foam cup of chai with my mom the ghost of her best friend sits on a castle
maybe it's the section eight tenements she once lived in she smiles waves the ocean wind streaking their bushy hair hooking onto my goatee tugging me between the living and the dead
i pull curls off my chin for philosophy to answer my questions instead the sky becomes a pigeon and cracks up hysterical mimicking my mom's laughter into sobs tears that seed and grow her dead friends into a haunt
for a while there, i followed deadheads hopped music festivals looked for something in bass maybe in woodstock or tennessee or vegas
we never knew home but prayed five times a day my mom held her palms to our ceiling that sunk with the weight of rent waiting for rubble to hug us
my mom laughs dunking dunkin donuts in her tea time
you cried for her but it's mostly your history that leaves you hysterical hugging dolphins on the shore they vomit oil and candy wrappers you watch their last words stuffed in a flying plastic bag that you catch and neatly fold yourself inside with my mother
i carry you both through a desert of strangers and air sitting the bag beside me on the subway ride home
By asif universe ullah
Biography:
Writing has been an integral part of my life, from being a therapeutic outlet, to helping me reimagine challenging landscapes and dream possibilities. This has sometimes shown up as fiction, sometimes as creative essay writing, sometimes as poems. While I have beenw riting daily for decades, and have completed novels and chapbooks, I never sought to publish my work, until now. I have an undergrad in creative writing, a masters in English education, taught creative writing for five years to high school students in Brooklyn, NY, and now facilitate writing workshops for adults.
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