if you like oxygen try duckweed
if you like duckweed try evening
if you like evening try vessel
if you like vessel try hurt
if you like hurt try aphasia if you wanted a vantage try containment
try containment and see what it breeds commitment and see its good stock
try any breed and see if its electric
try a current and see if you need it
try a demand and see where it meets you
you liked the limestone, try quickness quickness begets forgiveness
beckons throwback
you liked when I was a mute alphabet
so try speaking
you like the pall now try the fixed sun
if you like a contoured language try ruffage
if you like mother tongue try the magistrate
if you like control then
tether a horse
if you like duckweed try to skim the surface
if you like distance try the island
if you like evening try vessel
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Author Bio: Asiya Wadud is the author of Crosslight for Youngbird (Nightboat Books, 2018), day pulls down the sky… a filament in gold leaf written collaboratively with Okwui Okpokwasili (Belladonna, 2019) and Syncope (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2019). Her collection No Knowledge Is Complete Until It Passes Through My Body (Nightboat Books) is forthcoming in 2020. Her recent work appears in BOMB Magazine, Best American Experimental Writing, Washington Square Review, and Makhzin, among others. Asiya teaches poetry to children at Saint Ann’s School and leads an English conversation group for new immigrants at the Brooklyn Public Library.