FATIMAH ASGHARHe Who is Good with Swords
after francine j harris When I finally reach the end of him I fault him most for his plain name. The way it shows up everywhere, dirtying the party, tracking in mud from parks, pages of books, neighborhoods I have no interest in. It arrives on my doorstep, smearing the welcome mat. Sweet as a sugar cube. It’s in my tea now. Dissolving with the water. His name is in my spit. I cannot unswallow him. He is on the mouth of all the lovers whose lips I lick. I always thought I would love a man with the name of a god. I always pictured a glorious death –– running into a house ablaze, saving babies from the fire, kissing a bullet for someone I loved. Not this simple name. Not the way he is on every woman’s tongue. Not the way he is everywhere, and I still managed to lose him. 155 The Paris-American 
Fatimah Asghar is a poet and performer. She is a member of the
Dark Noise Collective and has been published in Drunken Boat, Solstice, Word
Riot, Muzzle Magazine, DecomP, Fringe, and many others. In 2011 she created
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s first Spoken Word Poetry group, REFLEKS, while on a
Fulbright studying theater in post-genocidal countries and now serves as the
Director of Community Arts for the Redmoon Theater in Chicago.
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Next week's poet:
Elizabeth Bodi 
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