SAFIA ELHILLO

DOWRY

i went home         i went missing

built a shrine to all my manmade hurts

my manmade limits my borders [i don’t

like to be touched] i zip in & out of my

mottled body smudged up in fingerprints

& in teeth i reach for the saffron of

the light & paint myself powder my

face with my homeland turned to dust

& all i’ve got in my hands are the infinite

variations of myself a girl by another

name looking down one day as my

grandmother did before me to see my

hands wrinkling like rivers seen from above