Two Poems

red 

i remember the boy in the window
eyes like falling
against a full moon

every poem is about silence
the snow melting in the sidewalks 
the city slush seeping through my boots
seven or eight years ago

but surely i was never that young
living through my first winter
eating my first new york bagel

surely there’s something 
at the center of this quiet
a fresh eye around my neck
my hair newly garnet

here i am learning the tread of a new day
another day shackled to my bed
a whole year in the 
metal and sun prison
listening to ice crash into pavement
the city a new obstacle course
every other day

what do i write about when
there’s nothing to write about
i write about my hair
about how i didn’t cry
when my therapist died

a break

after school, on a sweltering april afternoon
abu dhabi sidewalks radiating heat 
i’m ensconced in the backseat of the kia
with the busted AC and
the doors with the child lock

wrapped in two scarves out of piety
i catch my eye in the rearview mirror
my faith suddenly in question
i stop believing in God
for just a moment 

my mom clumsily parks the car
outside the white block of concrete
with the green windows
she looks at me
i’m flushed red with guilt

i swallow my rebellion
avert my gaze like a good daughter
i entreat Allah to forgive me
still holding my disbelief
close to my chest

Rabha Ashry is an Egyptian from Abu Dhabi, currently based in Chicago. She holds a BA from NYU Abu Dhabi, and an MFA in Writing from SAIC. She is the recipient of the Brunel International Poetry Prize 2020. Ashry has been a fellow at Ox-Bow School of Art and has completed residencies with Holly and the Neighbors and Black Widow Books. Her chapbook, Loving the Alien, was recently published by Black Sunflowers Press in 2021. Ashry’s work has been published in the Oyez Review, Collected 2018, Airport Road, Electra Street, and Strange Horizons

Artwork by Zayn Qahtani, “Empty Where Home Used to Be” (2021), earth pigments, watercolor, colored pencil, ink on recycled cotton paper, 21 x 29.7cm

Zayn Qahtani (b. 1997) is an emerging painter, drawer, and sculptor based between Bahrain and London. Her work aims to establish a personal mythology - drawing on ancient matrifocal cultures, as well as the Sumerian civilization which birthed her own Arab heritage, to form a narrative in which she explores and navigates the post-human society of today. Her current practice explores a sustainable return to primitivity, often working on recycled materials, or hand-making her own paints and tools from minerals, flowers, and rocks, allowing her works to truly vibrate with the energy of the land itself. Follow her on Instagram: @zaynqahtani