Interview with Arab American Poet/Stanford Student Maya Salameh

Recorded in February 2019 at KZSU 90.1 FM (Stanford University) Stanford Lecturer + Arabology radio host Dr. Ramzi Salti interviews Arab American poet Maya Salameh, a full time student at Stanford, who recites her poem "My Other Mouth," forthcoming in The Greensboro Review. Read the poem below or at ©Maya Salameh ©The Greensboro Review my other mouth // if you ask me if I am fluent in Arabic / I will speak of mispronunciation / I will tell you of the vast spaces / between letters / I will tell you / my Arabic is words / wracked with labor pains / village / in the pads of your feet / the roots of verbs / I conjugate the hooked nose / the unruly hair / the holy in me / if you ask me if I am fluent in Arabic / I will tell you / my Arabic / wonders how torture tastes on the tongue / I will tell you / I have known words like / go & bitch & home & brown / if you ask me I will tell you / my Arabic fell in love / with a couple tongues / who never loved it back / my Arabic / is a voice full of seashells / has birthed cities / men / empires / if you ask me / if I am fluent in Arabic / I will tell you about gradations of skin color / I will say / I am more parts storm / than organs / if you ask me I will tell you / I don’t know how to translate purpose / from my mother tongue / but my Arabic loves like mint / in stalks & leaves / is a mouthful of holy water / the splintering of ships / the crucifix / on my grandfather’s wrist / if you ask me if I am fluent / I will answer / I take my canines out with my earrings every night / I inventory my edible parts / I will answer / I am not a pretty girl / if you ask me I will tell you / I am not a pretty girl / but my Arabic is beautiful / I have caught glimpses / the rolled r’s running through my wrists / the calligraphy of my coastline shoulders / the forgotten syntax of my full lips / if you ask me if I am fluent I will tell you / I am a poet / & a poet / owes a language her tongue / hands / toes / I will say / before its arrival / the world was prose / if you ask me if I am fluent I will confess / my Arabic is poetry / & in a certain quarter of the city / on such & street / I will be remembered / as the one whose stories ate her alive / whose poetry gutted her / in slashes of five / seven / five / I will remind you / I have always fallen in love too easily / I will tell you / the only language I know / is moments of misspeaking / I diplomat my teeth / I constellation my stammer / if you ask me if I am fluent / I will say / a language / is just the stars / forgetting their grammar. ©Maya Salameh ©The Greensboro Review

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