I.

In the beginning there were no orphans. God created the sky and
You lived, because a divine hand saved you from an accident. You lived
Though it’s an exaggeration to maintain that he must be an angel.

II.

In the beginning there were no orphans. God created the sky and
You lived without knowing how to formulate simple expressions
And random magic. But there are compensations, things we do:
I breathe in, breathe in and don’t explode
Through their empty names.

III.

In the beginning there were no orphans. God created the sky and
You lived, because a divine hand carried you from the eye of the storm
Remember language comes from this.
Waves turn into musical scores. Thinking captures the sound.
Listen. The new figures are simply those of birds,
Do not forget that they have names
Let it matter what we call a thing.

Adnan, Etel. “Sea.” Sea and Fog. Nightboat Books, 2012, pp. 3.
Darwish, Mahmoud. “VI.” In the Presence of Absence. Archipelago, 2011, pp. 49-51.
Harjo, Joy. “Remember.” How We Became Human. Norton & Company, 2004, pp. 42.
López-Colomé, Pura. “Echo.” Trans. Forrest Gander. Poetry, 2009.
Milosz, Czeslaw. “Ars Poetica.” The Collected Poems 1931-1987. HarperCollins, 1988.
Paz, Octavio. “Wind, Water, Stone.” The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987. New Directions, 1987.
Reyes, Barbara Jane. “Polyglot Incantation.” Diwata. BOA Editions, 2010.
Sharif, Solmaz. “Look.” PEN Poetry Series. Pen.org.
Tabios, Eileen. “MMXXVII.” 147 Million Orphans. Gradient Books, 2014, pp. 62.
Toledo, Joel M. “The Same Old Figurative.”
Vicuña, Cecilia. “Jungle Kill.” Trans. Suzanne Jill Levine.

Amanda Ngoho Reavey is an Emeritus Poetry Fellow at Black Earth Institute and the author of Marilyn, which won the 2017 Best Book Award in Poetry from the Association for Asian American Studies. She holds an MFA in Writing & Poetics from Naropa University.