Sahar Romani, 2017 Poets House Emerging Poets Fellow
Hijabis
Every time we pass
along sidewalks
or grocery aisles
spot each other
graze books
on library shelves
load towels
at the laundromat
or when
on a crowded bus
in Detroit or Seattle
our eyes catch
on the slant
of a second
we mouth
a silent salam –
song of a fist-bump
arc of a high-five
so what
if we are strangers
here, we are falcons
in flight.
Sahar Romani is an ethnographer, educator, and poet. She received degrees in South Asian Studies and Human Geography from University of Washington and Oxford. Her poetry has been published in Podium and the Margins. She teaches interdisciplinary research and writing at the Gallatin School at New York University.