this is how you send off a sixteen-year-old daughter you know you’ll never see again
By Sarah Aziz
On December 25, 2022, the UN said in a statement that 180 Rohingya refugees aboard a missing boat bound for Malaysia from Bangladesh were feared dead. 569 Rohingya refugees died or went missing in 2023 on sea crossings to Southeast Asia.
i
with a pair of solid-gold earrings,
as her grandmother puts it: the
only thing worth anything in the
camp. a folded crimson saree, with
lipstick to match. and a prayer blown
onto her eyelids: a firm floor that they
cannot pull from under her feet, an
average husband, a window so that she
can look at the birds.
ii
they have birds in every country. and men.
and wood. you know this. any other country,
with a warm corner to sleep in when it rains.
iii
she prays for rain, sticking out her tongue like
a child. there is an old saying where you come
from, but she cannot recall it. or where you come
from. you know this, because you never told her.
your forehead spelt her a daughter of the sea. there
was only one pair, twin stars like gilded breaths. bending,
she drinks liquid salt.
Source: Poetry (January/February 2025)