Awkwardly Do I Walk

DESCRIPTION

Awkwardly I Walk is third collection of poems by Soheila Amirsoleimani.These English language heart felt poems touch on a personal level.

AUTHOR

Soheila Amirsoleimani lives in Salt lake City with her husband and daughter, where she teaches literature at the University of Utah. She is also the author of  Death is also Blue and  The Blue Yarn [Kalaf Abi].

WHEN MY FATHER DIED

when my father died,
i stopped wearing
my red lipstick

our house became black
black-clad women, black tied men
and i could see
the black images of everyone
who came to our house
and passed in front of the mirror

my mother made halva
my sister sat on the kitchen floor
as she used to do
when she was a child

we put walnuts in dates
and poured fine sugar on them

the chairs were white
and everyone wore black and my cousin read a poem
that my sister and i liked

and my sister hugged my stepfather,
as though for the first time
and my uncle cried
for my father and for himself,
as old people do

when my father died,
it was summer
and we wore black for forty days
and my sister tired of black for good
and did not wear any
when she shopped for her wedding
in october,
as it was a bad omen

the wedding
was in our backyard
and all the chairs
were white