"Your Own Palm" by Tarfia Faizullah

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend September 28, 2017   Your Own Palm   Tarfia Faizullah

O, my daughter, once I was a poor boy folding peppers into my sarong to walk three miles to sell, but what can you tell me of sorrow, or of the courage it takes to buy a clock instead of a palmful of rice to go with the goat we can't afford to slaughter? Look at the lines Allah etched on your own palm: you have a big brain and a good heart, still, you don't use either enough! Once, I walked through a war beside my brother parallel to a gray river. Why do you care about the few damp bills I didn't give to our mother? Or the clock I bought to take apart? Well, I left that country with a palmful of seeds I've thrown across this dry, hard Texas. Allah has blessed me with this vine that coils upward. I care so little for what others say, ask your mother. That nose ring doesn't suit you, by the way. Once, you were small enough to cradle. There was a coil in that clock made of metal . . . O, that something so small can matter . . .                             No daughter, I don't need a glass of water. Look, this will grow into maatir neeche aloo. In the spring, you see, its purple leaves will be the size of your own palm. In the village, there is a saying: "Dhuniya dhari, kochu pathar paani." I don't know where the clock is or how much it's worth! There was not enough for kerosene . . . why do you always ask what can't be answered?            Copyright © 2017 Tarfia Faizullah. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "'Dhuniya dhari kochu pathar paani' translates loosely to 'individual life is water gathered in an upturned taro leaf.' According to my father, the kochu leaf is oily and slimy, which means the water cannot and will not stick to its surface. If there is even a slight wind, the water will fall or disappear. I love this idea of life as an element in constant movement, free fall, or temporary respite in the shelter of a leaf. In this poem, water is also the life force that helps a potato grow in adverse conditions, a beverage offered by a daughter who loves her father, and the river road that leads a curious young man and his brother away from a brutal and bloody war toward the strange and glistening potential of a freer life elsewhere." —Tarfia Faizullah   Tarfia Faizullah is the author of Registers of Illuminated Villages, forthcoming in 2018 from Graywolf Press. She teaches at the University of Michigan. Poetry by Faizullah   Seam (Southern Illinois University Press, 2014) "Elegy in Joy [excerpt]" by Muriel Rukeyser "Vessels" by Paisley Rekdal "And water lies plainly" by Laurie Sheck Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038

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