The Mountains Speak to the Village

Abstract

The Mountains Speak to the Village Raena Shirali (bio) Keywords Raena Shirali, poetry Up here, you're just flecksin the emerald. Which I'd never sayto hurt you. I'm saying a hundred bodiesrunning through a field chasing onewind-whipped mustard sari— What spectacle do you callyourselves—swarm of termitesflooding a mossy beam? I'm not trying to be picturesque. I'm trying to sayI was dead to this earth when I got herebut you—tanned arms swaying, you plucka weed from the soil, grind itbetween your teeth or between a pestle &—Mortal you do not think yourself, Mortal waving a branchyou've fashioned into a spear, if she sat with youon the stone by the river & you felt something inside you like a vine creepingacross your veins—Mortal, I'm telling youall she did was exist. [End Page 827] Raena Shirali raena shirali is a poet, editor, and educator from Charleston, South Carolina. Author of GILT, she received the 2018 Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award and a VIDA scholarship for Sundress Academy for the Arts' Residency. Her honors include a Pushcart Prize, the Philip Roth Residency at Bucknell University's Stadler Center for Poetry, and the Gulf Coast Poetry Prize. She lives in Philadelphia, where she is a co-organizer for We (Too) Are Philly, a summer poetry festival highlighting voices of color. She also serves as poetry editor for Muzzle Magazine. Copyright © 2018 The Massachusetts Review, Inc.