A Small Matter of Engineering
- A Small Matter of Engineering
Samiya Bashir, water tower
The old water tower once storedevery drop we lived on. Its walls
dark-capped brick beige assupermarket pantyhose still rise
erect astride the main dragwhere our road splits between
opposing camps. On this sideeverything gone as long as anyone
remembers and winter still coldas it’s ever been. On the other side?
Listen. You’ve always had the broadestswath of the river, friend. Thing is: we’re
still here. Whatever else you’ve got left—well—let us stay parched. G’head, I dare you: [End Page 181]
SAMIYA BASHIR is the author of Gospel and Where the Apple Falls. Recent issues of Poetry, World Literature Today, Poet Lore, Michigan Quarterly Review, Crab Orchard Review, Cura, Eleven Eleven, Cascadia Review, and others house a few of her poems. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with a magic cat who shares her obsessions with trees and blackbirds. She teaches at Reed College.*
First appearance in Ecotone.
