The Interview
Rent from DeepDyve- The Interview
I shuffle past the school’sfortified metal. Guards frisk me
as I approach, ask me to leavemy name, phone number, time
of day; why I’m here in a book.I think default procedure.
Maybe, I’m heartenedby their arm’s gesture,
how not one pats me down;says, this way, madam.
Maybe this is the way a mind deadensto what once shocked. Inside
his office, the principal askswhere do you think we’re going?
Outside his window, a boyin the courtyard hits a ball
with his bat into blanched springlight. Unmoved, I say, to hell. [End Page 93]
You think so? he asks,as the two of us watch
the ball soar beyondhigh brick and barbed wire
to the roof where a sniperguard scans the distance
for whatever scareswatchers into life. [End Page 94]
Hera Naguib’s poems have appeared in Spillway, Beloit Poetry Journal, the Banglore Review, diode, and elsewhere. She is a graduate of the Sarah Lawrence College mfa program and currently teaches literature at Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, Pakistan.
