hi friends. here are a few poems i recently got published with a small lit. mag. called The Flying Dodo journal; https://theflyingdodojourn.wixsite.com/the-flying-dodo/submission-guidelines | xxo, ty*.
The Spiritual Is All There Is
I’m considering applying for a job as a receptionist at a veterinary hospital,
though that is serious and I don’t want to mess up any appointments or dates.
I took really good care of my goldfish when I was in seventh grade;
my older brother gave them to me for my birthday, and I took perfect care of them.
You can’t overfeed them, because they eat whatever is given to them, I think;
and you have to clean the tank often.
I recently drew an illustration of a girl and her cat, for a calendar project
for a nonprofit I volunteered with. I think it was a good picture, it was calming.
I should get a turtle; something that has a shell. Something quiet and contemplative.
I’ll let it crawl on my hand, and it might tickle a little.
I might get one on my birthday, so that we’ll share the same birthday, sort of.
I’ll get one on my thirtieth birthday.
I think I’ll go ahead and do this.
It Speaks Loudly and Clearly to Me
I want to take the correct stance on important issues.
I don’t want to be on the wrong side of history. I don’t want to
hold onto ideas that are no good. It’s difficult when your viewpoints are still
being shaped. You hear that certain phenomena are oppressive, and you wonder
whether this is true. You hear about great abundance and wealth; and you hear about
extreme deprivation. You wonder whether it’s a matter of ending ostensible harm
and uplifting the disadvantaged; or whether there’s something wrong with the current structure
in life. “Serving your immediate community in whatever way you can,
and earning provision for it” seems to work for many people; yet it doesn’t work for many others.
You don’t know which truth to settle on. You see all of the successes that your own parents have had,
and yet you’ve felt their discomfort; life’s division of labor.
You wonder whether it’s as simple as taking care of yourself, your community, and
your loved ones, and getting people out of disadvantaged circumstances; or whether
there’s something more insidious going on—whether the system really is exploitive and unfair.
There will be solid ground for you to stand on
I used to think there are puzzles everyone has to piece together
in order to mature and enter adulthood.
To this day, I sometimes think of life
as a maze or game you have to figure out.
It has a sort of finish line I guess, and
knowing how to play (and “move”)
all depends on where you want to go,
where you want to be.
Even if you don’t know the end goal,
you take an educated guess based on
what your head and your heart tell you;
you will re-assess and correct as life goes on.
This is one thing I’m learning.
-here is the bio I used with my work, in the aforementioned mag:
Ethar Hamid is a beginning writer and illustrator from Khartoum, Sudan. She currently lives in northern Virginia, where she is enrolled in online coursework in film/video editing and photography.
ty***, bye. ❄️🌸
a portfolio 