Another day’s closure and they are back
ululating through long limbs of dark
yippee yaa yaying & yodeling as night grew
this was their jam I often listened to
wild ukulele sonatas impervious to us
as the pack let loose howls stirring the pitch-
black, the whole caravan out for a cruise
catching scent of deer while wild cherry trees
held squirrels holding their breath
as that tribe moved in self-proclamation.
Now lights of new houses across the valley
are like eyes blinking open where they shouldn’t
making nights less and less dark
I lean against my window, mad desire
seizing me it is all I can do to stop
from flinging the back door open, from
running to join them in the yawning obsidian
with my furious lust for life for
doing the doing of living I’d forgotten
how to do between a pandemic making
of new housing developments gradually
enveloping. I reign my self in, let the fever
pass, as their last throaty serenades
linger smoke on rain
touching many panes other faces peer out of
into the late-hour wide awake now
for a moment everyone remembering
the wild drumbeat of our rib-caged hearts.Eman Hassan received a PhD in poetry from the University of Nebraska. Her collection, Raghead, was Editor’s Pick in the New Issues First Book Award (2019) and a finalist in the 2021 Oregon Literary Awards. She has work published or forthcoming in Blackbird, Painted Bride Quarterly, Mizna, and in the anthology, We Call to the Eye & the Night: Love Poems by Writers of Arab Descent, among others. She lives in the Pacific Northwest.
10/4 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence Raina J. León / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free
10/4 / Poetry Reading with visiting poet-in-residence Raina J. León and local poet Susannah Winters Simpson / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7:30 pm EST / Free
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What a powerful poem, all of it so strong, leading to that lovely landing: "the wild drumbeat of our rib-caged hearts." Thank you for sharing this!
Incredible form to express the notion of wild impulses battling mundane reality. That last line lingers! 🙌🏻