the early stirrings

By Atia Sattar

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a fish slipping
brushing gentle within
bathing anew in everything 
I ate: masala dosa, nasi goreng 
and thai food spicy. 

dad couldn’t eat spicy at the end
couldn’t eat at all. I taped 
the tube near his nose, trimmed 
the tape with tiny scissors, kept 
it from rubbing against his mouth 
untrespassed by food, articulated 
only in pain or anger or impatience
but mostly staying shut. 

we never spoke 
of our shared germinations
the bodies growing inside our bodies
eating and eating and eating
until each of us felt sick. 

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Atia Sattar is a Pakistani-born poet whose writing explores the embodied intersections of motherhood, grief, gender and race. Her poetry has appeared in West Trade Review, MQR: Mixtape; Rogue Agent (Pushcart Nomination) and Cathexis Northwest Press. Her prose can be found in various publications including Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, Academe, and the Cambridge Quarterly for Health Care Ethics. She is Associate Teaching Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Southern California.

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