Iowa Writes

KEANAN FARUQ
In Your Shore


I felt my fingers in her sand, my toes in her sand, sand that crossed the waters from her shore, crossed the waters of crossing currents and invisible shelves that drop off into the deep, into the dark, into the abyss of foreign minds in foreign lands.
From her shore she looked out, looking north to where she'd die. Beyond her island, beyond Anguilla, beyond America, somewhere in her mind.
She saw me standing here, one hundred years far away. And she dreamt of her baby and everything her baby would have, and all of the things that her baby would never have and all of the things that would be taken away.
What's real is what's been left behind. What's real is what awaits. What's real is what we'll never have, Helen.

About Iowa Writes

Since 2006, Iowa Writes has featured the work of Iowa-identified writers (whether they have Iowa roots or live here now) and work published by Iowa journals and publishers on The Daily Palette. Iowa Writes features poetry, fiction, or nonfiction twice a week on the Palette.

In November of 2008, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated Iowa City, Iowa, the world's third City of Literature, making the community part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

Iowa City has joined Edinburgh, Scotland and Melbourne, Australia as UNESCO Cities of Literature.

Find out more about submitting by contacting iowa-writes@uiowa.edu


KEANAN FARUQ

Keanan Faruq currently resides in Iowa City where he's completing an MFA at the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program.  He sorely misses all of the places he's never been and regrets never writing all of the things he's never written.  One day he hopes to find true happiness in the most unexpected of places.




In Your Shore is the first in a series of three poems.  The next one will appear on tomorrow's page.

This page was first displayed
on October 14, 2015

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