Zakeeyah Khan
Go back to where you came from
How I wish I could. How I long
to crawl back into my mother’s
warm womb. Curled
into myself, yet never
alone.
The world booms
at all hours of the day.
But in her womb,
the only echoes—
those of her voice.
The only vibrations—
those of my own heart
beating
against
her
walls.
The Meek Shall Inherit
The broken, the bruised, the scorched
Earth. Ravaged beyond recognition,
She knows how to restore
Herself. And She will be whole
again, for somewhere there is a child
who tends to soil, rejoices
as fruit is born on the rooftop
of ruins.
“The poem ‘Go back to where you came from’ started with the title, a phrase too often lobbed at immigrants and their descendants outside of their country of origin. In this poem the speaker sees the womb as the first home, the first place of safety, and a respite from feeling alienated. Yet the atmosphere of risk is still present for both mother and child, both outside of and within the womb, hence, ‘beating against her walls.’ In this poem, I wanted to name the often unseen labor of nurturing and carrying life in times of war and immense violence.‘The Meek Shall Inherit’ was inspired by a young Palestinian boy in Gaza named Ahmed, who shares his farming journey with the world on social media during a genocide. While writing this poem, I also recalled a Palestinian farmer in Gaza named Yousef Abu Rabee. Yousef founded an organization that provided seedlings and education to Palestinians on how to cultivate urban gardens before he was killed at the age of 24. I thought of farmers all over the world, the small, urban farm in my community, and how cultivating food sovereignty is amongst the most powerful forms of resistance to death and destruction.” —Zakeeyah Khan
Zakeeyah Khan is an American-born woman of Indo-Caribbean descent. She writes both poetry and fiction in between working as a therapist and facilitating collective wellness workshops. She has been on a mission to live her life in the most authentic way she possibly can by embracing all parts of herself. Zakeeyah’s writing has been published in Monkeybicycle and elimae, and she was a participant of the DISQUIET International Literary Program in Lisboa, Portugal in June 2024. You can find her at https://www.zakeeyah.com/
