Dima Aboukasm
Shallow Waters
Aggrieved at the heart of it
and in the prayer book crease
where every Sunday you'd run your fingers down a new verse you could not understand
or refused to because how is it that a mighty god could bestow such loving horrors upon the
world
or that a preacher's son could slice a wound into your daughter
then sit in the pew that very next day, head bowed and crooked to the heat.
We are all sinners but some of us more so
Your grandmother taught you grace but now it is all just rage boiling over and judgment day at
the helm.
Move slowly towards that heavenly arch;
there are snakes moving in shallow waters.
Bio
Dima Aboukasm is an Arab-American writer and student raised in Michigan and Western Massachusetts. Her poetry has been previously published by Milk Press with the Poetry Society of New York. Her poetry is inspired by walks to the mountain, heart openings and closings, and a deep desire to bring truth and goodness into the world– through and against darkness.