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the poet
Isra Hassan is a Somali-American poet from Minneapolis. Her poems appear in Guernica, Poet Lore, The Waterstone Review, The Penn Review, and elsewhere. Her debut manuscript was a finalist for the 2023 Center for African American Poetry & Poetics Book Prize. She resides in Washington, D.C.
the poems
Sigh
For Hoyo
a bodice for your being
an accordion for your presence
when was the last time you thanked your lungs
air and i
could you tell we’re biological sisters
shared umbilical cords
and crawling space
dispelled
from the cavern of a woman who introduced love to us
before we saw the light
we being us both
we
and we’ll always be a we
we cried
we sighed
we rejoiced
Of Thee, the Solemn
Fluid Sings
Repentance drapes over a matriarch’s tear,
her prayers sedating the quantum nocturne.
With it, an avenue of light begins its harmony,
murmuring of a kingdom come.
Archetype
The Ingénue
The abyss grins at me,
I spit in its mouth,
or perhaps, perchance,
I am the spit in its mouth …
Regardless, there and there,
together, our wets
worship each other.
Publishing credits
Sigh: The Wake (Vol. 21, Issue 3)
Of Thee, the Solemn Fluid Sings / Archetype:
exclusive first publication by iamb