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    Water & Salt
    Water & Salt
    Water & Salt
    Ebook104 pages47 minutes

    Water & Salt

    By Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

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    About this ebook

    Lena Khalaf Tuffaha's debut, Water & Salt, sings in the voices of people ravaged by cycles of war and news coverage. These poems alternately rage, laugh, celebrate and grieve, singing in the voices of people ravaged by cycles of war and news coverage and inviting the reader to see the human lives lived beyond the headlines.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRed Hen Press
    Release dateApr 27, 2017
    ISBN9781597095945
    Water & Salt
    Author

    Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

    Lena Khalaf Tuffaha is a poet, essayist, and translator. Her work has appeared in the Nation, New England Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Poetry Northwest, and Southern Humanities Review. Her debut collection of poems, Water & Salt, won the 2018 Washington State Book Award and was a finalist for the Arab American Book Award. She lives in Redmond, Washington with her family.

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      Book preview

      Water & Salt - Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

      I

      YOU WILL NEED TO STATE THE REASON FOR YOUR VISIT

      UPON ARRIVAL

      You will need to state the reason for your visit.

      Don’t say because I want to walk down old roads

      and caress stone walls the color of my skin.

      You will need to state the reason for your visit.

      Don’t say because the olives are ready for harvest

      and I will coax the fruit from the trees,

      press it into liquid gold.

      You will need to state the reason for your visit.

      Don’t say because my parents’ house

      still sits empty on a bluff overlooking the sea,

      the green shutters my grandfather had just painted

      remain sealed shut

      and the army listed the property’s owners

      as absentees.

      You will need to state the reason for your visit.

      Don’t say because I am carrying prayers in my suitcase

      for a people who wait,

      and I’ll unfold them

      embroidered linens of verse

      and spread them out across the land.

      GRANDMOTHERING

      In memory of SFK

      Tin bowl

      warm water

      wide-tooth comb

      red ribbons

      Your hands

      weave moisture

      into stubborn, parched curls

      again and

      again

      tucking prayers

      in whispers near my ears

      humming love

      patiently

      Strumming

      like oud strings

      familiar song

      into thick, brown strands

      ya teyteh ya habibti

      Tying each braid

      with a delicate bow

      holding my chin up with your

      warm hands

      smiling again

      at a young girl

      in red ribbons

      TIME TRAVEL

      We travel back so that you

      will know who we were and who

      you might have been if you

      had lived here too.

      We travel back so that you

      can become who you are.

      We travel back not to

      because even now

      after we’ve lived longer

      here than anywhere else

      we still think of this place

      as new, as a destination,

      a motion forward

      out of the womb

      or darkness or the arms of

      love. We travel

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