You turn to see if he’s watching, if he’s afraid that you’ll leave, but can’t tell either way. Your jeans held your ass differently on hormones. You wonder if he can tell the difference.

the soft animal of my body is rotating in the 7/11 hot dog display

For Jahangir, a patriotic and pious man, every rule of Allah and law of the state was enforceable and unquestionable. Laws against holding hands. Laws against kissing. Laws against sex. Laws that made living a secret and Ali Reza a sought-after man.

Wait for enough things at the same time, and every action becomes an effect.

Taking off a necklace. Watching a YouTube video on car repair. Drinking tea with jam we made this spring, when you told me that I just need a little more time. 

We sent a blast into our social universe asking for the joker to reveal themselves and were met with intrigue but no answers. Superstition says one cannot buy one’s own tarot deck. It must be passed down or bestowed.

I read things and they float away. I would rather stare at my own breasts. “Mind like a steel sieve,” my father would say.

I pass trucks carrying oil, milk, a load of onions (mostly) covered by a tarp. You’re hot, he says.

Photographs from Syria and Palestine.

I put on my suit every day for work.
It takes three hours.