Poetry by Tiel Aisha Ansari
You have walled up my free-flowing waters, trammeled me with rip-rap and rat-rotten levees; you entomb me under asphalt and throw bridges across my back
You have trapped out the beaver that shaped my watershed, the salmon that climbed me into the land
You ditched and filled, drained and overbuilt, the wetlands that cushioned the blows of my wrath, my wrath flooding against the lands around me
You choke me with nitrogen runoff and mats of green algae, suck out fresh water and give me salt to drink, you drain me to dust and dead fish
But I swear I hold no malice, need no revenge, claim no sacrifice. Stop bringing me
children to drown.
Sufi warrior poet Tiel Aisha Ansari has been featured by Measure, Windfall, and Everyman’s Library. Her collections include Knocking from Inside, High-Voltage Lines, Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare’s Stable, The Day of My First Driving Lesson, and Dervish Lions. She hosts Wider Window Poetry on KBOO Community Radio.
