language – Michigan Quarterly Review

language

Mother—Tongue

the language I come from has no mother so what if I don’t have a mother tongue that rolls off my lips Arabic Hebrew English never quite reaching my mouth spoken over my head I was the seed rotting in the lucky country new roots words stresses my mother had no idea she was marrying […]

Mother—Tongue Read More »

the language I come from has no mother so what if I don’t have a mother tongue that rolls off my lips Arabic Hebrew English never quite reaching my mouth spoken over my head I was the seed rotting in the lucky country new roots words stresses my mother had no idea she was marrying

Colorful Artwork of Meatloaf

Meatloaf

Two fingers on her hands rattle like winter leaves on the tree. Words hiss through her head. Do-ga-ske-v-se-gu-hanaugh.I shrug in frustration. How do I tell her even the words of her Cherokee language do not survive? I put her hand to my head but she takes it away. She is not deaf or blind! I see her buckskin gnawed by the teeth of wolves. Her feet trail bits of a comet.

Meatloaf Read More »

Two fingers on her hands rattle like winter leaves on the tree. Words hiss through her head. Do-ga-ske-v-se-gu-hanaugh.I shrug in frustration. How do I tell her even the words of her Cherokee language do not survive? I put her hand to my head but she takes it away. She is not deaf or blind! I see her buckskin gnawed by the teeth of wolves. Her feet trail bits of a comet.

Kaveh Akbar Head Shot

Losing Language to Find It: An Interview with Kaveh Akbar

One of the chief ways that language feels just vastly not up to the job is when I try to think about the divine, when I try to think about the power is greater than myself that governs my living and makes me want to live in a way that is counter to my nature.

Losing Language to Find It: An Interview with Kaveh Akbar Read More »

One of the chief ways that language feels just vastly not up to the job is when I try to think about the divine, when I try to think about the power is greater than myself that governs my living and makes me want to live in a way that is counter to my nature.

Blue fuzzy image

Loafing

The flesh rises in still early morning like dough that wants to make bread. And I am the one to feel it passing through me into you rising easy as saying I know moves quickly into I knew it—or like after your saying I said oh you ohing me on to say oh my sadness   so you could

Loafing Read More »

The flesh rises in still early morning like dough that wants to make bread. And I am the one to feel it passing through me into you rising easy as saying I know moves quickly into I knew it—or like after your saying I said oh you ohing me on to say oh my sadness   so you could

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