Ya khawaja

Braid my cheese and

slaughter a goat for my graduation,

Overstay your welcome,

Unspool prayer into cupped palms

& spread it over our gleaming faces,

feeding us sweets at funerals

and 3aseer laymoon in sickness,

Burn down all hotels

& industrialised hospitality,

Cry every bayt is baytak,

every home is home

did you want gossip or cumin?

did you just say mabrook at a funeral?

Give me a room that swells

and animal fat in green bottles,

salons in shadows and

women shapeshift into sandalwood,

stroke my palms baba and repeat

9abaa7 9abaa7 kisra bil moolah,

Sing to me your question

bayt al 3aroos wein &

set the bottomless trap,

let me giggle gidaam &

giggle gidaam & giggle

more than 4 spoons of sugar?

did you just say al baraka feekum to the bride?

Gal lek fi wahid,

who reads Hiba and wonders

Vaseline-shining girl or gift,

(gidaam)

her empty of small talk is filled with

Allah’s remembrance and

stories about this graceless tongue:

(gidaam)

she asked for mokhadarat at a vegetable stall!

and called her tribe Jalabiya!

she steals every joke from a passport!

Marvel as I release them all with gidaam

& Spit sleeping giggles

resuspended from underarms,

Mother of all punchlines!

________

SALMA ALI is a 21 year-old Sudanese poet studying Biochemistry at the University of St. Andrews

________

SALMA ALI is a 21 year-old Sudanese poet studying Biochemistry at the University of St. Andrews.