Notes on the Jugular

 

Suffocate a fish, then choke

on its bone. For days, you practice

 

the Arabic letters. Your father spits

while your mother perfumes

 

below her chin. Remember the place

of the moles, and remember to rinse

 

the steel full of phlegm. Knife

the goat like this, and hold

 

chickens between your thumb

and index. Begin to love

 

at his jaw.
 
 
 

Noor Shahzad is an undergraduate at Salisbury University studying creative writing