In Her Feminine Sign

Dunya Mikhail

• Publisher: Carcanet Poetry
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781784108533
• eBook ISBN: 9781784108540
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Poetry
• Index: Literature

A Poetry Book Society Autumn 2019 Wild Card Selection

At the heart of In Her Feminine Sign, Dunya Mikhail's luminous new collection of poems, is the Arabic suffix taamarbuta, 'the tied circle' – a circle with two dots above it that indicates a feminine word, or sign. This tied circle transforms into the moon, a stone that binds friendship, birdsong over ruins, and a hymn to Nisaba, the goddess of writing. With a deceptive simplicity and disquieting humour reminiscent of Wis?awa Szymborska, and a lyricism wholly her own, Mikhail slips between her childhood in Baghdad and her present life in Detroit, between Ground Zero and a mass grave, tracing new circles of light.

1. THE TIED CIRCLE

THE STRANGER IN HER FEMININE SIGN

Everything has gender

in Arabic:

History is male.

Fiction is female.

Dream is male.

Wish is female.

Feminine words are followed

by a circle with two dots over it.

They call this symbol ‘the tied circle’,

knotted with wishes

which come true only when forgotten

or replaced by the wishes of others.

In the town of tied wishes

people feel great anticipation

because a stranger will arrive

today in her feminine sign.

Someone says he saw her

two dots glittering,

refuting another’s vision

of a cat’s eyes hunting in darkness.

So scary, he says, how the moon

hides in her red circle.

Everyone is busy today

listing wishes on pieces

of paper they’ll give to the wind.

When the stranger finds them

on her way, she’ll collect them

and adorn them to her circle,

tossing off some old wishes

to make space for the new.

They say the dropped ones

will come true.

Th stranger’s lateness

worries those who wait.

Someone says she’s searching

for a word to complete

a special sentence,

the gift she’ll bring to town.

Another wonders if she seeks

a verb or a noun,

and offers to find her.

A third warns that the stranger

may turn him, with one touch,

into a flower that blooms

for only an instant

before it withers and dies,

her circle throbbing with songs

that cause sadness and elation,

and something so obscure

no one has a name for it.

Will she complete a verb

or a noun phrase – or go solo,

a word complete on its own?

They wonder.

When they finally hear footsteps,

They know the stranger must be near.

Make sure the gate is open,

they remind one another.

They hear clinking –

A bracelet? A chain?

SONG INSIDE A FOSSIL

She’s still looking

down at her baby

after 4,800 years.

Her fossil has the curve

of mothers tel...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Author’s Note
• Contents
• 1. THE TIED CIRCLE
• 2. TABLETS
• 3. T/HERE
• Notes
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• Copyright