Issue 20

Summer 2019

São Luís, 1611

Talal Alyan

in us always the monorail circling a dark skyline,

an old synth/ rings in rings in rings aloud more

siren than song in each and in us all the quiet

hours too/ letting the elevator lift us with strangers

/ to apartments we will never share.

in us the cold glow of television, the satellite

dreams/ the white noise that trembles in and

out and into the machinery of our lungs/ pulling

closer the pollen and bloom/ blowing softly the

earth back into itself.

in us all the lost years too, the circus dog barking

at its cage, an ache that swells like a bomb

dropped on the ocean/ echoing into more of itself/

a nation formed where once there was nothing

one then two, four then

eight

About the Author

Talal AlyanTalal Alyan is a Palestinian American writer based in New York. His debut collection of poetry, Babeldom, was published by Astrophil Press in 2019.

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