We, As Poetry
soft waves
beneath
my skin
ripple like braille
who said
words
won’t stay
after ink
fades? not piercing
or memorable, each line
pulled
from my vein, the largest
runs from the lower
half of me, back up into my heart.
these words: goosebumps
they’re shadows, remnants
of past lives
what hypocrite would
I be, if I didn’t push them
out of me? for you, always
for truth
you are
Sacred. every area
we sit in, imprinted, with meaning
serious & inconsequential
one word etched into my
arm connects us,
a mirror image –
a mirage when time
fades into a new
muse.
if you cannot feel
it now…
someday, you will.
it will rise in you,
too, this appetite for
expression
in a moment of
joy, maybe
or out of boredom in
the quiet of your bedroom
breaking free: poetry
even when pushed
down –
cannot fall
that’s why
we gather here
today, pulling letters
apart
like stalks
of corn, & consume them
greedy, as if we know
anything
or have a
say in what
lasts when our
organs decay
but these scratches:
this one — and the next—
prevail, burned into
space
read it, let it rise
to your surface
in unexpected
release
from hubris
Mariam Ahmed is a Californian poet who holds a Bachelor's degree in English with a minor in Sociology from UC Davis and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Poetry from San Diego State University. As a Pakistani-born American raised in the Bay Area and Folsom, CA, Mariam is a first generation scholar and the first woman in her family to attend college. She is a certified Poet-Teacher with California Poets in the Schools, and her work has been published by many literary journals and presses, including Poetry International, The Los Angeles Review, The Elevation Review, Flint Hills Review, Progenitor Art and Literary Journal, Maintenant: A Journal of Contemporary Dada Art & Poetry, and elsewhere. In addition to writing and teaching, Mariam enjoys meditating and exploring beaches.