Majda Gama


At the Thanksgiving Dinner Table an American Contractor Fresh from Iraq
Comments on a Ring Given to Me by My Father*


(Is that) the face of the moon carved from shed bone
embedded in a silver band. All (the bone) moons
have meaning to me beyond (of the) crescent
marker of hijra, (infidel) year, and month.

Until now it never felt dirty. (Is that) this simple
ring gifted by father to daughter, (the bone) promise
of nothing more than acceptance (of the) of my
turn to the (infidel) universe in quest, not crusade.

The meat on the table, is that the red sauce plated
carefully, still so loud on my bone china as conversation pauses;
the room looks at me, guest too, we have spoken of the cold
snaps & leaves, the infidel wind opens the door, takes my place.


*Is that the bone of the infidel? was the question I was asked.

Majda Gama is the author of the forthcoming chapbook The Call of Paradise, selected by Diane Seuss as winner of the 2022 Two Sylvias Chapbook Prize. Poems have recently appeared in The Adroit Journal, Four Way Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Night Heron Barks, POETRY Magazine, and are forthcoming from Memorious, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, and We Call to the Eye & the Night (Persea, 2023), an anthology of love poems by poets of Arab-SWANA descent. Her poems have been nominated multiple times for Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and the Pushcart Prize, and her debut manuscript was a finalist for the 2020 New Issues Poetry Prize. Born in Beirut, Majda was raised in Saudi Arabia and the United States and is now based in the DC suburbs where she has roots in the underground music scene. She is currently a co-host of the Café Muse literary salon online.

ISSN 2472-338X
© 2023