Measurement of Holy

included in New-Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set (Saba)

Akashic Books

…an intrinsically ambitious work…these poems of sacred and domestic ecologies play out—as an elegantly woven gossamer of everyday detail and, on occasion, as larger archetypes…

Karen McCarthy Wool, from the preface

The Condition

My Mother tells me
that God says
even if, even while,
the world ends around you,
earth tearing root by root,
even while the horses
stagger into holes,
neighing into the darkness,
filling their mouths
to the throat,
when the horn sounds off,
Israfil balancing his clouded
weight on a rock,
his lips cracking and gold,
even while you hear
the ghosts leaving the spines,
their hair longer than ever,
breaths coming out
in timed instruments,
even while the waters
seethe open,
bodies rolling to the shore.
If there is a seed
in your palm,
you must bend to the soil
and plant it.

Nadra Mabrouk