POETRY November 5, 2021

Erasure

But.
        Here.
                Tripping         for earth        a storefront                  becomes a brownstone
        becomes a crushed pill          becomes a snort                     a red party cup swirling
        prayer
                           I said                    oh God                        I’m trouble
God said                 your trouble            keeps me

                                                                 half extant       all spirit
                                                                 my body
                                                                 becomes
two then four then              thousand itsy bitsy bodies                            falling from sky
        biting into tree
                bark
                                             the dog
                inside my nesting place
                        woke to alarm
                        only to find its muzzle
                        glued with web
                        petitioning
                                                                   without location                     or culture
                                                                   alive still.
                                                                                     Somewhere.
                                                                                                           But.

Ayesha Raees identifies herself as a hybrid creating hybrid poetry through hybrid forms. Raees currently serves as an Assistant Poetry Editor at AAWW's The Margins and has received fellowships from Asian American Writers' Workshop, Brooklyn Poets, and Kundiman. Raees's first book of poetry, "Coining A Wishing Tower" won the Broken River Prize hosted by Platypus Press and judged by Kaveh Akbar, and will be forthcoming in March 2022. Her website is: https://www.ayesharaees.com/