Let Me Tell You Where I've Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora

Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan H SUSAN ATEFAT-PECKHAM If you’re lost, look for theWorldTrade Center, and you’ll find your way home. —A PASSERBY From the United Nations International School, on FDR Drive and th Street, Mother and I walked the wind north fifteen blocks to meet Father who waited for us at the United Nations, the Hudson River lapping its edges, lifting our hair to the brass of rush hour traffic. And the twin towers gleamed with western sunlight if I looked over my small shoulder. If you are lost, look for this shining, shadows looming over the bay as the Staten Island Ferry pushed its way from Lower Manhattan through Hudson water, home to New Jersey, the skyline receding till the towers slipped between the closing pinch of my thumb and forefinger, my eye just behind. This city, in the palms of my hands, beneath spaces of clamped fingers, where I carried it to France, Iran, LOWER MANHATTAN 205 Switzerland, Texas, Nebraska, Michigan, where I still hold it the years I’ve left it behind. How will I find my way home? My palms burn. If you are lost, look for my eyes, hot in your hands, carry me there, bright, burning, and alive. 206 SUSAN ATEFAT-PECKHAM ...