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I stay home and watch fireworks on the Fourth of July

my son thinks they're shooting stars

they race over our deck celebrating the accuracy of our drones

they celebrate the red glare of rockets landing in puddles of

families huddled around their breakfast tea and zaatared bread

starbursting rockets explode simple dreams of music and dance

pieces of flesh and hair and secret imaginings of romance and jasmine in the garden

all fly together into interstellar air

the fireworks’ ashes rain down into our sweet, iced tea

we consume the bitter dream particles and digest them into a lesser form



Layla Azmi Goushey is an English professor in St. Louis, Missouri. Her poetry, prose, and non- fiction have been published in several literary journals and anthologies such as the St. Louis Anthology and Beyond Memory: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Creative Nonfiction.
Current Issue
2 Oct 2023

How did we end up so far east, on the flanks of a cold beach? You told me you always wanted to see the Pelagio, ever since you were a child. But your skin was never made for water. You shouldn’t have ever learned to swim.
look through the soap, the suds, the sopping wet clothes
as she leaves mortality behind / She always returns to me
Wednesday: Infinite Constellations: An Anthology of Identity, Culture, and Speculative Conjunctions edited by by Khadijah Queen and K. Ibura 
Friday: The Moonlight Blade by Tessa Barbosa 
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