10 Aug: "My Love for Nature" by Fatimah Asghar

Play at 12 minutes to hear Fatimah Asghar read her poem "My Love for Naure."

All this tall grass has ruined my gold

acrylic nails & I know something’s dead

just beyond my window. I grew up

with rats running my floorboards

& know the smell straining from a body

once caught in a trap. In the city

what little I have of an ass

is always out, a simple wind blow

from Marilyn Monroe-ing the street.

Here, in all this nature, there is nobody

but me & my 5 friends for a week

& I promised myself I’d be naked

but the first day I found a tick

clinging to my arm hair for dear

life & decided no way I’m exposing

my pussy to the elements. My love

for nature is like my love for most things:

fickle & theoretical.

Too many bugs & I want a divorce.

Last week, before I was here

my uncle drove me from our city

to the suburbs & sang “Project Chick”

in the car. When we parked

he asked me to take off my shoes

& there we walked, silent, barefoot

circling the lake, trying to not step

in goose shit.

He walked in front & I trailed behind

both our hands clasped behind our backs.

    When you were my daughter,

    those were the happiest days of my life.

    I wish you would come home.

My love for the past is like my love

for most things. I only feel it when

I’m gone. Best to stay gone

so I’m always in love. If I look

at something too long it forgets

its joy. All the floorboards carry

death. My gold nails are fake

& chipped. My bare feet skirt the shit.