Alia Hussain Vancrown
Alia Hussain Vancrown has published in journals and magazines in print and online. Her poetry has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She was selected to participate in Winter Tangerine's 2018 workshop, Singing Songs Crooning Comets, featuring seminars by Kaveh Akbar and Aricka Foreman. Alia works at the Library of Congress in the Law Division. She currently resides in Maryland. For more, please visit aliahussainvancrown.com and Instagram @aliagoestothelibrary. Alia recommends her late cousin's scholarship fund: The Daanish Khan Memorial Scholarship.
They’re worried about Trump
and Modi. Muslims in India being lynched
for keeping beef in their freezers
or being Muslims.
one time he said men will use
kite strings to decapitate other men
riding motorcycles
no, you’re fucking with me but it is
possible invisible strings can slice clean
I eyeball her ribs, her sockets,
her cheeks, her scabs.
Why, girl. Take the
damn crackers, there is
fat on me everywhere.
Brown girl, brown girl
her guilt is so deep and juicy in her thigh bone
that when her God consumes her, she is sure
He will suck the seasoned marrow