Fragment from a Province Drawn in Dust
If there is water, it must come
from the skin. Mother, when
you spread our country across
the flat map of your hand, I saw
only your palm; I could not dream
even then. Now I squint, bent
like your finger in the wind-
driven sand, but still I cannot
dream: I see only your hand.
MALACHI BLACK is the author of Storm Toward Morning (Copper Canyon Press, 2014) and Indirect Light (Four Way Books, 2024). Black teaches at the University of San Diego and lives in California.