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TINA ZAFREEN ALAM


The Rusty Toque | Issue 13 | Poetry | November 30, 2017

525 years & they are still lost

​tides brought wave after wave
of atlantic salt-
water & entitled white men crashing
on to taíno shores                 what
future might have been                  if
they were better
navigators      travelled east-
bound hit india
moon as my witness
once they’re done here        they
will try & colonize her too

​

on birds clouds dandelion spores & border crossing

blue-grey pigeon with iridescent emerald head coos
4 year-old ducky breaks off a piece of graham cracker
hops & gingerly places it down      birdfeed
on saturday at teardrop park
wings flapping on winds
migratory patterns
                                                night skies
 
                                                                                    v-shapes
                                               
                                                grey skies
in blue skies
gliding aside clouds speeding through air
ordinary birds
sea gulls
canada geese
pigeons
city fowl
ducky shuffles back summer sun-
browned skin & black curls ashy-
dusted sand crusted at big slide’s base
as pigeon approaches on walkway
ducky watches                       eyes wide
just then
an older whiter girl runs in arms waving
chasing screaming pigeons are crazy!
ducky’s jaw drops open
in awe
maybe sadness
bird retreats
depending on who you are
                                    all our institutions are euphemisms
abuse
control mobility
hoard resources
on lands & their masses
nation-states inscribe shapes
sites of possible violence
site of possibility & violence
borderlands
no man’s land
no matter how thin
there’s space between edges of every
line     liminal
delineating an us & them
walls permeable
            with permission
apparently static
            but variable
imagined boundaries
binding insecurity
us
who chose to number & document
and why name & categorize this way
sunday at peace bridge border re-entry
i recall signs on entering new york state stating
all plants
all animals
fruits & vegetables must be declared
this makes it seem like pigeons & dandelion spores require
passports
                        but
                                    animals & plants are stateless
even canada geese
which ruler divides us
who sat with ruler compass protractor
this coast here
this body of water
mountains raised by convergence of plates
tree lines razed by forest fires
earth has her own divisions
warm orange crescent smirks
shining on
our imaginary line of a border
she knows of true crossing  transformation
they create artificial
marks to carve order
restructure restrict nature
confine each other
post-questioning border agent says welcome home
my smirk matches the moon

​

ruin-reading

for eren, anne-sophie & ana
to the lives, lands & homes lost to social disaster
& those that survive them 

​“becoming a ruin-reader might not be so bad a thing.
it could in fact save your life.” - junot díaz, apocalypse
 
i.
 
it’s not natural
                                    to         move
                                                                        this     way
not here places
on the way places
dry climate control
hum                            breathe
                                    shallow
musty-stale air & stark white fluorescent light
muted grey bus stations                                          branded airport terminals
uniform departure gates & matte black tarmac
moving train cars                                                     pressurized plane cabins
where do diasporic souls lay
                                                  to rest?
 
 
ii.
 
bangladesh hastens to build
rampal coal power plant                              accelerate
global warming when each monsoon brings floods
decimate sundarbans
mangrove forests                                          nature’s best protection from tsunamis
 
 
iii.
 
my world clock set to eight different cities
updates through whatsapp & imessage
before cell towers or wifi we had
landlines & letters
forged family over
                                    delay & echo
                                                                        static   crack   pop     buzz
flat
            vocal
                        monotone
translucent pale blue or white airmail
envelopes bordered by red & blue parallelograms contain
notes & photographs named dated on back
in ballpoint pen & embellished
colonial handwriting
                                                forever fixed in time like film stills of my memory
 
 
iv.
 
mid-night phone calls mean
somebody died                                 sounds
of that triple              long                 distance
ring at odd hours still give me
pause
 
 
v.
 
in a long distance relationship with destruction
                                                                                    suspended                 awaiting
news               across             time zones
borders may as well mark limits                           of care
alone in our worries
fibre optic cables & power lines have nothing
on planned systematic decay                                  more black & brown people become
ruin-readers              squinting                   past
longitude & latitude
as our families pay every price
                                                                                                                             neil smith warned
                                                                                  there is no such thing as a natural disaster
it’s not natural
                                    to         move
                                                                        this     way

​
TINA ZAFREEN ALAM is a diasporic Bangladeshi poet who happens to reside in Tkaronto. She is a VONA (Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation) and Winter Tangerine Workshop alum, a blog editor at Shameless Magazine and has work published in The Peak Magazine, From the Root Zine and LooseLeaf Magazine. When she is not writing, she is communing with squirrels in the park or looking at pictures of her niece and nephew, Amaya and Ducky.
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  • Home
    • Issue 1 >
      • Creative Nonfiction: 1
      • Fiction: 1
      • Screenwriting: 1
      • Poetry: 1
      • Contributors: 1
    • Issue 2 >
      • Visual Art: 2
      • Fiction: 2
      • Poetry: 2
      • Masthead: 2
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    • Issue 3 >
      • Poetry: 3
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      • Comics: 3
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    • Issue 4 >
      • Prose: 4
      • Poetry: 4
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      • Visual Art: 4
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    • Issue 5 >
      • Nonfiction Kathy Acker & McKenzie Wark
      • Drama: 5
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