Sharuunaqia

first appeared in the Michigan Quarterly Review in 2022.
we cannot understand what you are saying
show us the word instead
                                                  I turn
my phone their eyes fixate on the Arabic
pupa they pull it closer (they have forgotten
to wear their reading glasses)
                                                         ibne, you
mean sharnaqa? you have been saying
sharuunaqia – that is the problem
with translation apps Arabic is not
a robotic language you must feel it

it is an Alwazah earl grey tea bag wrapper stolen
by inclement weather I left it unattended for
a single moment of conversation with Shawn
the gun has sounded the bag has lapped me
and my father is on the sidelines he screams
yallah my son it is time to catch up or you will not
finish this race and now I am chasing after it though
it flits faster than I am able to run I fall behind

I must admit I have saved many encyclopedia
entries and recipes and dates on my computer
because I cling to them in hopes that I will
become my hard drive
                                        here is one Kha b-Nisan
it is the new year for my village we are meant
to recite the Enūma Eliš in ancient Assyrian

I must admit I do not know what these words
mean but I am aware that I am meant to celebrate
the 6771st anniversary of our earth and Ashur
but this may be a passing thought for the lamb
tastes the same regardless of our recitation

I am looking at the New York Times Barbara
Kafka is presenting me with a recipe for grape
leaves she tells me it is a nice and exotic dish
from the Mediterranean so I follow her directions
in my college dorm but they taste foreign

perhaps if I had called them dolma and
perhaps if I had added some cardamom despite
              Mrs. Kafka telling me otherwise and
perhaps if I had prepared them in a deep pot and
perhaps if my mother had made them for me
they may have tasted like tradition

but Barbara she cannot impart this wisdom
upon me she cannot inject my instincts
with Wikipedia articles and English recipes
and even monarchs remember their unwinged pasts
in the in-between goop of their cocoons

I must admit that I think I will hatch eventually
but the only remnants of my larval period
will be befuddlement and regret