appealing

The Maynard
Fall 2018

Yara Farran
0:00
 
 

The First Treatise

In hubb,* there is a hook,
no sinking ships or marbled mouths,
just punctured lips and
a melody that breaks the silence
between a fricative and vowel
between peeled bodies and forgiving grounds and reparation;

        did you learn how to swim during the Flood?

When yellow cabs were bellied like gutted moon wrasse.
When umbrellas were Floating Heads—Mount Rushmore.

If New York were like London and Tripoli
we would not need coded love songs.

We would not need metaphor or natural disaster
or heavy-leaded anchors in the shape of an
‘O’.

These
perfect circles and
public spheres: a tidal storm of theoretical dissonance
and a shore filled with the ersatz of last summer’s riot, and overturned fish.

To die so soon,         before season’s arrival:
how premature our overripe expectations
and
how filthy our song.

* Arabic for the word love.