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  • My name is Safia Elhillo,

  • and this poem is called "to make use of water."

  • dilute

  • i forget the arabic word for economy

  • i forget the english word for عسل

  • forget the arabic word for incense

  • & english word for مسكين

  • arabic word for sandwich

  • english for صيدلية & مطعم & وله ‎

  • /stupid girl, atlantic got your tongue/

  • blur

  • back home we are plagued by a politeness so dense

  • even the doctors cannot call things what they are

  • my grandfather's left eye

  • swirled thick with smoke

  • what my new mouth can call glaucoma

  • while the arabic still translates to

  • the white water

  • swim

  • i want to go home

  • dissolve

  • i want to go home

  • drown

  • half don't even make it out or across

  • you get to be ungrateful

  • you get to be homesick

  • from safe inside your blue american passport

  • do you even understand what was lost to bring you here

My name is Safia Elhillo,

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