my mother wore hijab at the pool
the florida concrete steamed
pale limbs and frayed jeans
shorts carried all the right
adjectives. you told me
to watch for alligators,
how they travel from canals
and slither into pools. instead
i found wolves, back from
extinction, wolves that never
left. i hesitated to close my eyes
during marco polo. i heard
their howl: one suit, two suit,
show me your coot.
they closed the pool for vomit,
but not for wolves. i walked to you &
the lady with the yellow teeth called me
a sand nigger. the more covered you are
the more exposed i am. we left early
because there was a hurricane warning.
you boarded up the house, filled the tub.
i waited till you fell asleep and then
i went outside. what else could i do
but climb the metal slide and pray
for lightning to touch me?
pale limbs and frayed jeans
shorts carried all the right
adjectives. you told me
to watch for alligators,
how they travel from canals
and slither into pools. instead
i found wolves, back from
extinction, wolves that never
left. i hesitated to close my eyes
during marco polo. i heard
their howl: one suit, two suit,
show me your coot.
they closed the pool for vomit,
but not for wolves. i walked to you &
the lady with the yellow teeth called me
a sand nigger. the more covered you are
the more exposed i am. we left early
because there was a hurricane warning.
you boarded up the house, filled the tub.
i waited till you fell asleep and then
i went outside. what else could i do
but climb the metal slide and pray
for lightning to touch me?
Sally Badawi is an Arab American writer and teacher whose words appear in Diode, Orange Blossom Review, Lost Balloon, and elsewhere. She was a poetry fellow with Summer Literary Series in St. Petersburg, Russia and her work has been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. She currently serves as an associate editor at Typehouse Magazine.
Art: Sink, oil on canvas, Paulina Swietliczko