> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# One Poem by Marwa Helal
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/one-poem-by-marwa-helal/
- Published: 2017-01-25T12:02:29.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:41:33.000Z
- Description: Our poetry editor, Wendy Xu, has selected one poem by Marwa Helal for her monthly series that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers.
- Author: Wendy Xu
- Tags: Poetry, Hyperallergic Poetry, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:23 (2016, 2017, part 2)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/01/osh-brooklyn-plot-re-visualized.jpg)

**the middle east is missing**

wha do osama bin laden and i have in common? saddam? qaddafi? mubarak? sharon?  
peres? is kashmir? is asia? is persia? is europe? is iran? is jordan? is kurd? a  
language? a religion? cuisine? borders on bordering? wha do you and i have in common?  
red sea dead sea an empire syria iraq say kurd say we were occupied  
a people under siege of make xenophobia believe drink and say, “zamzam.”

say we did it to ourselves.  
say: complicit. i want to walk/ return maps speak to managers of mapmakers  
i’d like to see god’s atlas compare it to ours trace a new equator a river nile still running  
azure  
azure  
upwards its own gravity joins scapegoat to scapegoat  
in song: *row row row your boat gently down a stream merrily merrily merrily life is but a* 
*dream*  
x3  
say je suis zidane, je suis egyptienne.

say it to a rhythm not a plot  
a quality not a toxin  
say dizzy without jury without trial ask of us just us sing back lyric  
dust off vulgar gaslight

say it in the colonizer’s tongue. call it the cradle of civilization say dunyah say la illahah  
ila allah say jannah inscribe your history inside every barren closet you once  
occupied say quickly *here we are now entertain us/ cartographers agitate us*  
exact us excise us

would you make a space for me? between zoot jute epoxy and a hard place somewhere  
between vengeance and yolk next to the place you go to quake

ive brought my own pillow plus sleeping bag but now the letters have become cryptic i  
cant tell if it is because of shyness or lack of interest when you look like me you  
can say things no one will question or everyone will question you in june as a zygote in  
uterus in excess

maybe it is a cry for help. maybe it is just a cry. say palestinian  
say palestine  
say syria  
say syrian  
say baby  
say future  
say mine  
say yemen  
say yemeni  
say zay (like)  
say hena (here)  
say mine say ghost in context weep quietly then wail  
so make a space for me in your mind.  
make me a space  
graph, transcribe. jaunt, wax, wane.  
here is neruda. here is his book of questions.  
here is mine. a quiz of sorts. this is the map i navigate by.

who you pulling from bricks? a baby? an arm? books? a ball? who’s is it? you ask  
coaxing at gallons of quicksand absorbing and vying for joy, for protozoa

pray static pray jaw pray zoroastrian  
pray xanax pray quickly borrow what you will from  
god, from vagrancy, from vacancy

before i left i wrote: where you from? where you from? where you from? inside every  
empty closet of the homes i once occupied. dont forget  
where youre from, dont squint. zoom in. stow the box, lock the key. jump on.

we made a new map from breath from zone to zone we  
moved, traveled, walked, journeyed. there are many  
who experience what we havent quote benefited from being unquote.

maybe a cry for help, maybe jus a cry. maybe a memory quivering of a juvenile  
kingdom’s lie, maybe was a zealous royal  
who unleashed sand and sphinx making borders die: in yellow,  
blue, green, and red, orange and cream lines.

\* \* \*

Marwa Helal is a poet and journalist. Her work has appeared in *Apogee, Poets & Writers, The Offing, The Recluse, Winter Tangerine* and elsewhere. She is the winner of *BOMB* Magazine’s Biennial 2016 Poetry Contest. Helal has been awarded fellowships from Brooklyn Poets and Cave Canem. @marwahelal on Twitter or marshelal.com

*Readers are encouraged to submit 3–5 poems as a PDF to Wendy Xu for consideration at* [*poetry@hyperallergic.com*](mailto:poetry@hyperallergic.com)*.*