“Sitting in the academy”
By Noor Al-Samarrai, U-M LSA Creative Writing Graduate Student
For many years I have practiced being in the
world, even with its grief.
On mornings during the Month of the Dreams
of Tears, I paused to look at flowers.
On walks I said to the magnolia, I could live
for you, even for your browning
blossom, sweetening when picked and left
on the bed for my mid-winter stubbornness.
The passionflower I admired for its freckles
and fringes, the guava blossom’s gifts
I simply licked then swallowed.
Every season is the season of sugar, one might say, or
sugar-season’s endless. Marzipan before
strawberries fruit, honey
without expiration. Sitting in the academy
with grief is a particular pain.
It wants to transform
grief into knowledge too soon. A lesson for whom?
—
Al-Samarrai’s book “El Cerrito” received an honorable mention from the 2018 Arab American Book Awards. #NationalPoetryMonth #Poetry #umicharts
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