Uncomfortable Depths
Nazifa Islam | Poetry
a found poem: L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables
I’ve heard the world
is lovely—
that it’s ever green
and splendid—
but despair like ice
blooms
in winter-time
and so I just remember
dear cheerful
mornings while feeling
haunted
by the brook
up near the orchard—
I can hear it
laughing at me.
It hurts to always be
sad—to have
loved and wanted
everything.
Nazifa Islam is the author of the poetry collections Searching for a Pulse (Whitepoint Press) and Forlorn Light: Virginia Woolf Found Poems (Shearsman Books). Her paintings, poems, and fiction have appeared in Gulf Coast, Waxwing, The Account, RHINO, The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, The Rumpus, and Beloit Poetry Journal among other publications. Her work has been selected for inclusion in The Best American Poetry anthology series and The Wigleaf Top 50. You can find her @nafoopal.