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| Listen to the interview at https://soundcloud.com/arabology/mayasalameh |
Recorded in February 2019 at KZSU 90.1 FM (Stanford University)
Stanford Lecturer + Arabology radio host Dr. Ramzi Salti interviews Arab American poet Maya Salameh, a full time student at Stanford, who recites her poem "My Other Mouth," forthcoming in The Greensboro Review.
Listen to the interview below or at https://soundcloud.com/arabology/mayasalameh
Read the poem below ©Maya Salameh ©The Greensboro Review
my other mouth //
if you ask me if I am fluent in Arabic / I will speak
of mispronunciation / I will tell you of the vast spaces / between
letters / I will tell you / my Arabic is words / wracked with labor
pains / village / in the pads of your feet / the roots of verbs / I conjugate
the hooked nose / the unruly hair / the holy in me /
if you ask me if I am fluent in Arabic / I will tell you / my Arabic / wonders how torture tastes on the tongue / I will tell you / I have known words like /
go & bitch & home & brown /
if you ask me I will tell you / my Arabic fell in love / with
a couple tongues / who never loved it back / my
Arabic / is a voice full of seashells / has birthed cities / men / empires / if you ask me / if I am fluent in Arabic / I will tell you about
gradations of skin color / I will say / I am more parts storm / than organs /
if you ask me I will tell you / I don’t know how to translate
purpose / from my mother tongue / but my Arabic
loves like mint / in stalks & leaves /
is a mouthful of holy water / the splintering of ships / the crucifix / on my grandfather’s wrist / if you ask me if I am fluent /
I will answer / I take my canines out
with my earrings every night / I inventory
my edible parts / I will answer / I am not a pretty girl /
if you ask me I will tell you / I am not a pretty girl /
but my Arabic is beautiful / I have caught glimpses / the rolled r’s running through
my wrists / the calligraphy of my coastline shoulders / the forgotten
syntax of my full lips / if you ask me if I am fluent
I will tell you / I am a poet / & a poet /
owes a language her tongue / hands / toes /
I will say / before its arrival / the world was prose /
if you ask me if I am fluent I will confess / my Arabic is
poetry / & in a certain quarter of the city / on such & street / I will be remembered / as the one whose stories ate her alive / whose poetry
gutted her / in slashes of five / seven / five /
I will remind you / I have always fallen in love
too easily / I will tell you / the only language I know /
is moments of misspeaking / I diplomat my teeth /
I constellation my stammer /
if you ask me if I am fluent / I will say / a language / is just
the stars / forgetting their grammar.
©Maya Salameh ©The Greensboro Review