New Projects and Old Exiles

When you are building a life in absence, what does it mean to be free in exile and imprisoned at home? As a geographer, I’m taught that spaces are never empty, but full of processes and stories yet to be told. That the naming of a space can be the very creation of place. So...

South to South, Part 2: Speaking Southern

I think most people in the U.S. and abroad associate southern accents with less than favorable things. But I’ll take a southern drawl any day of the week over any other way for the English language to come tumbling out of someone's mouth. For god’s sake, at least there is some pause built in. Like...

South to South, Part 1: The Willows

There’s supposed to be such a thing as a Southern writer. A tradition, a style, a locale, and an ego too I guess. I don’t know if there is such a thing. But, I grew up in the South and I write, so I ‘spose you can put me in whatever category you’d like. I...

Anti-triggers

Trauma introduces therapy in the day to day. The long walk Underwater swims Train rides and buses to them Memories turned short stories And therapy introduces trauma to the same. The paralyzing song The suffocating scent Worst case scenario daydreams And what’s strange is that though I see Palestine everywhere, around every corner, the sounds...

Communions and Conversions

Bismilah. When I was nine, I took my first communion. By accident.  Sort of. We skipped breakfast to make it to church on time for Christmas Mass. His mom told me if I just closed my hand in a fist as our pew walked up to the altar, the priest wouldn’t give me a cracker....

بين الهواء والريح

بين الهواء والريح عشت يوما طويلا بين الهواء والريح عشت حلما قصيرا بين الهواء والريح كنا نتابع اخباركم بكل نفس ونصلي من أجلكم و نقول إن الله يعطيكم القدرة و القوة تجعلوا ما كنا نظنه من المستحيل بين الهواء والريح موجود الفرق بين الحياة و الموت و الفرق بين المسلم و المؤمن بين الهواء والريح...

Coloring Borders

Some of us are born with the memory of a border. Long before we ever see one on a map. It makes me think Hinduism would have done well in Palestine. Reincarnation could explain it. A past life as reason for the memory at birth. Instead, we settle for inheritance as an explanation. But I...