“I recognised that look
like the Angel of Death brushed you
aiming for someone else
a little death that keeps you only just alive
to notice the gap in your chest
that lets every wind whistle through
without cooling the ragged ring
a death that keeps you dying just enough
to watch your child (your, plural)
grow with a rift down their middle
extending in each of your directions
(your, plural)
now you are plural, apart

What is the pronoun for
previously together?
How to bind that separation into your language
(your, singular)
mark your words so that no one will need to ask
the obvious, searing question
make it normal as I and You and We?

We the rent asunder
We the formerly
We who are no longer
We the dead that breathe”

from Regularcillo
Medina Tenour Whiteman
in A KALEIDOSCOPE OF STORIES
Muslim Voices in Contemporary Poetry
Coming soon from Lote Tree Press