"The scalps of the women with the best prophecies are dry this season" by Ladan Osman

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend June 19, 2019   The scalps of the women with the best prophecies are dry this season   Ladan Osman

They grow too aware of crowns, spend evenings rinsing and rinsing, water boiled with oils and herbs left to cool alongside chicken and grains. The women send their children to work, on themselves or the house, and steam their scalps.   I dream of my father but don't know what he says. It's kind. I share rice and other grains with a man. I hand him light in my kitchen. He takes it and my belly cools.   I prefer not to write about love. I prefer not to write about my body. My father's love, my mother's body. Both regenerate with astounding speed.   At times, I find myself in an ancient pose. In a café, I make my arms a bow and look up, as if an arrow will appear at an absurd angle. I mark a line   from privacy to throat, trace the dark line under my bellybutton. Maybe someone took my astral baby. Maybe I birthed the man who denied me. Maybe he had to deny me to avoid a crime. I don't point my fingers.   I'm convinced our fate is determined in part by water, that we can't avoid walking by or being near a body of it, however we plan our travel. That showers are prescribed before birth. How many things have I missed letting my wet bangs touch my eyelashes, singing into a stream?            Copyright © 2019 Ladn Osman. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 19, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. About This Poem   "I wrote this poem in Chicago during a time when I expected water to spring from anywhere: the floors, my eyes, out of windows. It's one piece from a sequence that considers heartbreak and climate change by rendering the body arid, the speaker's longing imprecise." —Ladan Osman   Ladan Osman is the author of Exiles of Eden (Coffee House Press, 2019) and The Kitchen-Dweller's Testimony (University of Nebraska Press, 2015) . She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Photo Credit: Joe Penney Poetry by Osman   Exiles of Eden (Coffee House Press, 2019) "Wade in the Water" by Tracy K. Smith "cutting greens" by Lucille Clifton "Cascades 501" by Rick Barot June Guest Editor: Samiya Bashir   Thanks to Samiya Bashir, author of Field Theories (Nightboat Books, 2017), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A with Bashir about her curatorial approach this month and find out more about our guest editors for the year. 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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