sugah. lump. prayer.
Akashic Books
Cover art by Ficre Ghebreyesus
Mehri’s collection bristles with beautiful lines reminiscent of the northern Somali jiifto poetry, in the way they combine modern nomadism (the immigrant experience) with addressing important political, religious, and philosophical issues. In many instances, the poems recount personal experiences or reflections, and they meander broadly and bring a collage of images—religious, political, sexual, psychosomatic, and cyber . . . these poems capture the subversive dare of an iconoclastic imagination that leaves the reader hungry and unsettled, salivating for more. I invite you to venture into them.
Tijan M. Sallah, from the prefaceExcerpt
Momtaza Mehri, from “buttercream bismallahs”Each morning we wake up on opposite sides of the bed
and play at being Lazarus for a day, an afternoon.
Some of us will make it back, the rest
descending into a breaking night, only to be mourned
by those who look like us
across the split lip of an ocean.