Midnight in the Foreign Food Aisle

by Warsan Shire

Warsan Shire

Dear Uncle, is everything you love foreign
or are you foreign to everything you love?
We're all animals and the body wants what it wants,
I know. The blonde said Come in, take off
your coat and what do you want to drink?
Love is not haram but after years of fucking
women who cannot pronounce your name,
you find yourself in the foreign food aisle,
beside the turmeric and the saffron,
pressing your face into the ground, praying
in a language you haven't used in years.





Last updated May 12, 2023