Flesh
And this pretty-ass basilisk pulls up, talm bout “you so fine,” which duh I know, I got a man that tell me that every day? And I also got the life-giving soul-sucking coochie so?? But It was kinda fine too so I was half listening. And It’s spittin all this shit about the good fruit, yadda yadda don’t care already know, but tell me why It says: “this one’ll give you knowledge.” Which is what I wanted from jump. To know.
Observation of Other Suspected Mental Condition
She tells me again about her warehouse in China, about the dolls she met there, until we hear my mother whisper, “I’ve never tried taking it away,” and then we are listening carefully. “An old baby monitor will do,” the man waves his hand. “No need to buy anything new.”
On Karia
He says to me, maybe we don’t know the books, but around here we know things, too, things you don’t. His wife: We do. And here’s something everyone here learns when they’re a little baby: Jinns only appear to two types of people: those who believe too much and those who don’t believe at all.
The Shore
I knew...that if I entered the water, braved the waves’ momentary rush, all would quiet, and I would descend, slowly, away from everything above.
No ESmoking
My tías, a heavy, wet cloud around her, sobbing but holding abuela up. The dust of the road to the cemetery kicks up around their ankles. The wooden houses bow behind them, with respect. That’s what I would see, if I were there.
There Are Women and There Are Djinn
My great-grandfather was a scholar who taught the Quran to djinn, never accepting payment, so as not to bind himself to them. I want to believe this. That my great-grandfather was a person so powerful, he believed what he saw. A person so certain of his faith and his strength, he did something scary because he had to.