REASON
by Joumana Altallal

​Why not, in addition, tell             the story of your father huddled, afraid
of being taken from a home
               where, your mother says,         an entire city must have been
hiding    children, grandparents, uncles,            the women       recite
verses. Om Ahmad offering Surat Yasin, to blind the officers, she says
rocking           her body a sleeping infant        cradled in her lap, head
lolling
against her thigh. Officers abduct men hysterically. Your grandfather’s
car parked in front of the house.              Just returned. License plate:
Kuwait.                Furniture: unmoved.     Anything       a reason.
            Anything

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Joumana Altallal is an Iraqi-Lebanese writer and Zell Fellow in Poetry at the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program. She works with Citywide Poets to lead a weekly after-school poetry session for high school students in Metro-Detroit. Her recent work appears, or is forthcoming in, The Rumpus, Glass Poetry, Mud Season Review, and Bayou Magazine. She has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference, Napa Valley Writer's Conference, and the Radius for Arab American Writers. You can find Joumana on Twitter @joualt.