HILLS HIGH & LOW
Bera Bera, light this then hand it to me
Shera Shera, bring well water to fill my cup
Sarah Sarah, your craters will care for children one day
Darah Darah, your hills are the mountains I climb
A small paragraph told me
The drilling would take care of your kids some day
The hills circle circuit is your kind
my Daytimes spent seeking asylum
your body aches just looking at mine
all the beautiful ones
are soldiers from the front
from their backs and behind mine
their pinkies linked in secrets and time
valleys filled to the brim
their bodies ache just like mine
J O E
Hey you, my light, my light
Give me give me give me love
I took took the ice from your mother
I took your mother to the ice
Frost that breathed and bit my tongue
Began breathing frost, started biting my tongue
I sat down to sit, I wrote without thinking
O light of light, and I stepped in front of the lights
until the lights went out in front
Hey Black Black are the days when they do not see you
Black are the days when you can not see me too
Hey black, dark days have not seen you
Black are the days you can not see for two
I'm like the sweet dates in your cake
From myself to myself I dance
Give me your hand to lead me
I give you my hand and my pen
The sound you make my heart stops
Your sound it makes me wonder
I'll give you the sound when my heart stops
I'll give you the sound of wonder
MAIA ASSHAQ (b. 1987) is an Iraqi born writer and artist currently living in Los Angeles, CA. She is the founder of DittoDitto Books and the Detroit Art Book Fair. In 2015 she received the first Gilda Award for emerging writers from the Kresge Foundation. She is a 2016 Salzburg Global Forum Fellow.