An Ode to Southern Summer
—I'm not a bad Muslim.
It's your damned weather melting my morality…
When
It's anemic brown girl season.
When
We can get precisely as naked as we want.
When
I don Ray Ban aviators for anonymity and androgyny.
When
I walk barefoot backwards on suntanned cement for a free adrenaline rush
When
We need no more whiskey when you breathe Fireballs down our throats
When
I can survive entire nights on co-op sundecks with only one shot of vodka
And an arbitrary amount of psilocybin, moon-scorched, smooth-rambling,
No dancing only chanting, "Pakistan Zindabad", "Long Live the IRS", "Allahu Akbar"
When
Allah answers our landless Salaat al-Istisqa' : after the wildflowers die of thirst
When
You burn skin that the land rejects : we laugh
When
Settler architecture gleams : a wrecked spaceship, unprophetic
When
You suffocate me / it feels like home
When
A thrift store t-shirt saying,
"Where in hell is Texas?"
Has more than a metaphysical meaning / a question for the GOP to gerrymander
When
Everything rots faster, fridges emotionally dysregulated, roaches seeking refuge in
Soft drywall, sunspots expanding across the horizon, your air itching for
chaos
When
In my fever daydreams I stitch my strewn cosmologies into a patchwork skirt on the
plane ride Home, each passenger donating a piece of their outfit
then America becomes an animal.
By Saf
Biography:
Saf was born and raised in Austin, Texas. Their poetry is published or forthcoming in A Gathering of the Tribes, SPARK Magazine, and A La Moda. They were awarded the 2023 Fania Kruger Fellowship for social justice. They are the writing director of Saffron, a Central Texas based creative house that centers South Asian voices.
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