NOTE: This poem is written in two columns. The poem can be read in multiple directions. Each column can be read vertically, beginning with the column on the left. Alternatively, each line of the poem can be read horizontally across the two columns.
If viewing on a mobile device, please turn your device horizontally for the best reading experience.
Added: Tuesday, March 12, 2024 / Used with permission. This poem first appeared in Mizna 23.2: the Black SWANA Takeover issue.
Samah Serour Fadil is an award-winning Afro-Palestinian writer, editor and translator who resides in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. Her words can be read in Guernica, FIYAH, Palestine Square, Skin Deep, Ebony Tomatoes Collective and more. She was a co-organizer and performer for Global Indigenous Solidarities: A Poetry Reading, coordinated by Yale University Art Gallery, and is on the selections panel for Mizna magazine and Center for Book Arts. Fadil served as content editor for the Black SWANA issue of Mizna, winner of the Whiting Literary Magazine Prize. Her poem "prongs into the nation" was selected as the winner of the Petty Propolis Deconflating Surveillance with Safety poetry contest. Her debut book of micro-poems light, dark, in-between is available for order. Scan or click on the QR code below to learn more.
Image Description:Samah Serour Fadil looks into the camera with a white backdrop behind her. She wears her long hair in braids, with a section pinned away from her face so that one braid drapes slightly above her eyebrow. Samah wears shimmering eye-makeup with small, sparkling green and yellow rhinestones around her eyes, a necklace with a small green charm, and a bespoke handmade shirt by cotton trendie.