For each day of National Poetry Month one of our fellows will explore the breadth of poetry in three ways: through a question from another fellow, through a poem and through a writing prompt, #writetoday.
[QUESTION]
Muriel Leung asks, If you were the architect of a city with poetry as your only tool, what type of city would you build? Would you describe it for us?
Tarfia Faizullah answers, Detroit.
[POEM]
The Scar
That’s when the scar stitched my shoulder whole
until it grew thick,
a husk
never filling
with breath
or light—
above me
it twisted
like ant-eaten bark It rubbed
between his thighs
while mosquitoes brooded
Oh, their kiss-
hungry mouths It skinned
lake-water like a scythe
It wanted to learn
how to carry the word
cauterize
until the ochre sky wished itself
amber,
until the skin broke—
and that’s when the scar revealed a woman
trapped wet
shaped like an ebony
tusk
Previously published in Makeout Creek.
[BIO]
Tarfia Faizullah is the author of Seam (Southern Illinois University Press) and and can be found at www.tfaizullah.com.