Pick of the Month May 2015
Another Canaan
There was a wasteland
and cold tire tracks in the skin of the sand.
I forgot I couldn’t breathe.
In the distance was something
I could crawl to;
flat lands – these were like the lands of my childhood,
a people that weren’t built for inclines
but to trundle on
ever looking past the haze of dust
and abandoning things that could not be carried.
In the rush of feet and vehicles
was a cry that all things must move forward,
amongst the heat and pain,
where the dust had been beaten down into a solid block.
My mother said
“You’ve got fire in your bones and
none in your blood,
and hot bones break,
and hot sand buries broken bones.”
A crib lingers out in the heat
leftover from a broken moment
and I am leftover too
Rushaa Louise Hamid dances around London, discussing politics and perfecting her Dalek impression. Currently she is working on finishing the first drafts of a sci-fi novel and a slightly less sci-fi play. You can occasionally find her on Twitter @thesecondrussia