blessing

a couple- broken, young & lost
eyes fueled, the american dream
sits in a new york apartment
the family says they have been cursed:
a girl for their first child

no.
she is a blessing from lands of dim sum and shumai
our love child, our dancer
the steel backbone of maize farmers

her voice will bring the cosmos to its knees,
the universe will sob.
she will grab yin and yang from its throat
and smile.
how could she not?

the yellow bead in the family regalia,
tsingtao beer cradled in a pale hand.

how envious her ancestors must be?

a series of eights
drenched in the sun for forty weeks,
she will raise our country,
bridge the broken syllables,
cast stones from their hearts;

she will
open the curtains,
dust the shelves,
and mutter in wonderful pride,
“we never left.”

Imaan Sultan is a 17-year-old American Pakistani who lives in Saudi Arabia. Her work has appeared under New Asian Writing, For Women Who Roar, and other local journals. When she’s not writing, she enjoys looking into court cases, eating delicious food, and listening to K-Pop music. Her main inspiration for her poetry comes from her diverse background and her appreciation of what makes an individual vulnerable.