For Woman, Life, Freedom
an inability
an unwillingness
swelling in me
teething – blood in my sore
gums
cannot up(roots)
that I exist
that I resist
that I do not forget
that I am unable to un-remember
the pain bodied of my mother(land)
her hair
combing every morning
fall over my shoulders
that I carry
that I continue her being
that I am the being
that I am
the (mother)land
October 2022
Saba Pakdel is a poet, modernist scholar, and PhD student in the English department at University of Victoria. She specializes in migration studies and contemporary literature with a focus on exile, refugee, and immigration problems, particularly in works of migrant authors from the Global South. In May 2022, Saba published her chapbook In-Between by above / ground press. www.sabapakdel.com