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