Kazim Ali
Two Halves
Two halves circle each other
each aching for the other’s arms
They’re rent in their itching
to hit the ground at the speed of sound
The half of you is tone deaf
but the other half still sings
One half forgot the other’s face
his “collision or collusion with history”
The two lock now one to the other
sink blazingly below the clouds
surrendering the instinct to disfigure
disrobe, on the ground, twitching
from impact—one cast the other down
from Heaven
He-half mad by now, a curse-river
he’s parched, strung out, devoured
Unable to articulate how the other half felt
falling, shrieking, about to cut the sky in half
As for what they were holding when they fell
each can only remember
they’re thinking of it as they fall,
sun-spilled, thunderous, sundered
the lonely earth, an only child,
given to the mother who will let go
Kazim Ali is the author of two books of poems, The Far Mosque and The Fortieth Day, a transgenre memoir Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities, and two novels, Quinn's Passage and The Disappearance of Seth. In fall of 2010, his Orange Alert: Essays on Poetry, Art and the Architecture of Silence will be published in the Poets on Poetry Series. In addition to teaching at Oberlin College and the Stonecoast MFA Program, he is also founding editor of Nightboat Books.