‘Alternate Ending’ by Safia Elhillo

& where i’m from is where i’m from & not
where i was put

I am always returning to this idea of alternates. Alternate existences, alternate realities. Not in a butterfly effect way, but seen through the experience of disapora, of immigration and existing within social structures that constantly define your existence as other. Safia Elhillo’s poem ‘Alternate Ending’ is succinctly expansive, evoking notes of family, geography, and interpersonal distance.

i’m still on a date
& the words say something to me in arabic
fall backwards down his throat

The Offing