Thistle
by Tracy May Fuad
It so happened that the King fell in love with Raisin.
–Saddam Hussein
I can’t tell you how I found
war to be sexy – you would
only understand the shrapnel
in your knee – and I can only
think about my body turning
crude when my grandfather called –
how every body was an ear
and windows eyes – how I
got off because of where
we were – have you considered
tracer bullets to resemble shooting
stars – did you feel a melting
when you snuck between
two hotel rooms like I did – did
you think about stones
and flesh meeting – can I tell you
what honor tastes like inside
out and wrapped in plastic –
how brown appears blond
against a bed of oil – Kirkuk
was hot because the flames licked
at the earth eternally – no wonder
you look like you do in profile –
I should have known
why your picture is a thistle,
plant so emblematic of neglect –
and I, the earnest gardener
of every thirsty weed, willing
to sit by the river of oil and trace
the lines the thorns made when
I pulled them from my flesh.
–Saddam Hussein
I can’t tell you how I found
war to be sexy – you would
only understand the shrapnel
in your knee – and I can only
think about my body turning
crude when my grandfather called –
how every body was an ear
and windows eyes – how I
got off because of where
we were – have you considered
tracer bullets to resemble shooting
stars – did you feel a melting
when you snuck between
two hotel rooms like I did – did
you think about stones
and flesh meeting – can I tell you
what honor tastes like inside
out and wrapped in plastic –
how brown appears blond
against a bed of oil – Kirkuk
was hot because the flames licked
at the earth eternally – no wonder
you look like you do in profile –
I should have known
why your picture is a thistle,
plant so emblematic of neglect –
and I, the earnest gardener
of every thirsty weed, willing
to sit by the river of oil and trace
the lines the thorns made when
I pulled them from my flesh.
Tracy May Fuad is a poet from Minnesota and an MFA candidate at Rutgers-Newark. Her writing has appeared in Ninth Letter, Sixth Finch, Prelude, BOAAT, CutBank, Tammy, DIALOGIST, Nashville Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, and elsewhere.
Tracy May Fuad is a poet from Minnesota and an MFA candidate at Rutgers-Newark. Her writing has appeared in Ninth Letter, Sixth Finch, Prelude, BOAAT, CutBank, Tammy, DIALOGIST, Nashville Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, and elsewhere.
