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AIRPORT ROAD www.electrastreet.net/airportroad NYU Abu Dhabi 19 Washington Square North New York, NY 10003 Send inquiries to: Publisher Airport Road NYU Abu Dhabi PO Box 903 New York, NY 10276-0903 electra.nyuad@gmail.com ISSN 2312-1777 © 2014 Electra Street

Front Cover Image: Untitled, Khadija Toor

EDITOR

Sachi Leith

DESIGNER

Diana Gluck

READERS

Tessa Ayson Chaeri Lee Gayoung Lee Khadija Toor Emily Wang

MANAGING EDITOR FOR DIGITAL

Viswanath Chandrasekar

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Deborah Lindsay Williams

PUBLISHER

Cyrus R. K. Patell

Issue 01 Fall 2014

Contents POETRY Carlos Perez, 59th and Lexington 14 Veronica Houk, Lady Mozzy 23 Faustina Lim, Half Poet to Dead Poet 33 Tessa Ayson, Post 40 Valentina Vela, Fragments from a fragmented youth 46 Lucas Olscamp, Tell Me Something 50 Sara Bahermez, Homebred 63 Oscar Lozano, Mother. Father. My children. 65 Daria Karaulova, Yes. No. 91 Libby Goss, Gates of Gold 98 Megan Eloise, gunpowder 99 Tessa Ayson, A Note, A Tick 109 Rabha Ashry, home/utopia 117 Joey Bui, Man With an Axe 128 Cristobal Martinez Yanes, Poem No. 2 132

PROSE Tom Taylor, A Routine 11 Carmen Germaine, On Eating Meat 17 Neha Hirve, The Fall of a Hundred Things 27 Maheen Zahra, The Air of London 36 Na isatou Mounkaila, This I believe 44 Carmen Germaine, The Burden 55 Veronica Houk, Paper Dreams 57 Emily Eagen, Euridia’s Cry 71 Zhao Xu, The Twilight Zone 86 Nicole Lopez del Carril, Eating Fire 95 Jamie Sutherland, The Professor Zeinfeldt 100 Nadeen Alalami, Counting Down 111 Sachi Leith, Dromedaries 119

VISUAL Emily Wang, Abu Dhabi 9 Diana Gluck, Movement 10 Zahida Rahemtulla, Burj Basil 13 Joey Bui, Impassive, 7 Letters 16 Agustina Zegers, Off-Chance 25 Agustina Zegers, Composition with Orange & Banana 26 Cleo Smits, Shoe Portraits Series 34 Khadija Toor, Portraits 1 and 2 42 Diana Gluck, Inside / Outside 49 Megan Eloise, Michael 56 Anastasia Steshina, A Peek 62 Mika Koulibaly, Solitude 69 Diana Gluck, Pond 70 Natalie McCauley, Le Crayon de Dieu 85 Neha Hirve, dance of the smurfs 90 Natalie McCauley, Beach Mosque 94 Natalie McCauley, Senegalese Sunset 97 Mika Koulibaly, Intrigue 108 Emily Wang, Hatta, UAE 118 Nahal Mustafa, Dil e awara 127

Introduction “Arriving at each new city, the traveler finds again a past of his that he did not know he had: the foreignness of what you no longer are or no longer possess lies in wait for you in foreign, unpossessed places.”

– Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities From my bedroom window in Sama Tower, in downtown Abu Dhabi, I

Electra Street Airport Road

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Abu Dhabi Emily Wang

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Movement Diana Gluck

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A Routine Tom Taylor

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Burj Basil Zahida Rahemtulla

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59th & Lexington Carlos Perez

a tundra

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anywhere

with the

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Impassive, 7 letters Joey Bui

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On Eating Meat Carmen Germaine

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1

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_______________________________________________________________________ 1

stm

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Lady Mozzy Veronica Houk For all of these sweet, wet nights in Ghana.

I imagine you in boots

I do not begrudge your penetration

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That throbbing red

body,

in my hands,

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Off-Chance Agustina Zegers

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Composition with Orange & Banana Agustina Zegers

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The Fall of a Hundred Things Néha Hirve

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Half Poet to Dead Poet Faustina Lim

in the mornings

this morning

I am not a poet

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Shoe Portraits Series Cleo Smits

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The Air of London (Revisited) Maheen Zahra

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Post Tessa Ayson

jump with a

450 today

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Portrait 1 Khadija Toor

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Portrait 2 Khadija Toor

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This I Believe Nafisatou Mounkaila

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Fragments from a fragmented youth Fragmentos de una juventud fragmentada Valentina Vela

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Your

that hand

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And my Spanish is bitter

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Fumando

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A good shot

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Inside/Outside Diana Gluck

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Tell Me Something Lucas Olscamp

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The Burden Carmen Germaine

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Michael Megan Eloise

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Paper Dreams Veronica Houk

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*

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*

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A Peek Anastasia Steshina

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Homebred Sara Bahermez I was bred in a home

I was bred with

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Forget that I was bred to worship the wind

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Mother. Father. My children.

Oscar Lozano I

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II

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III

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Solitude Mika Koulibaly

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Pond Diana Gluck

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Euridia’s Cry Emily Eagen

Darkness, dank, pressing down.

I scream. The screams wilt in my throat. I weep. The tears cling to my lashes.

Alone with a monster, alone in the dark, choking on the

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perfume of rotting fish and Elysian fields. Pressed. Crushed.

Near to be pierced.

No father, no brother. I fight for myself. My work-roughed fingers strike out in fear and in fury. His laughter rumbles like thunder right through my chest, pounds through my heart like a storm over still water. I strike. He subdues. My proud lips beg mercy, none forthcoming.

He tears my dress. I’ve only one. He is a viper, poised to strike.

He crows the laughter of victory won.

I plead the gods mercy—please!

Mercy…

The orphan with stars in her eyes

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So beautiful.

I didn’t know anything could be so beautiful. How could a seed of violence yield a crop of joy? My love! First-fruit of a ransacked womb. My babe, sweet babe, my love! Your little fingers, fragile as flowers’ stalks caress my belly, slack with your absence. Your flower fingers trace the streaks of lightning red—my battle scars. My lap, my love, is the seat of war, the site of ravaged desecration. Violation. But my breasts are full and you suck with vigor.

Like a phoenix, from ashes bursts life!

Your lambskin feet are soft within my sea-wrinkled hands. Too much washing. I’m sorry for the callouses. The world is still so smooth for you—I’d like to keep it that way.

Saw the boy birthed

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But you, my love, grow firm and tight. You, my love! Full as the tide and smooth as a jewel. Sweet as honey and precious as salt.

Κάμω ε ε ε… Νάνι μού το νάνι νάνι κι όπου μου πονεί να γιάνει.

I make (the sound) e e e ….

Nani (my baby) nani nani and wherever it hurts will heal.

Hush, my love! Don’t cry. What cause have you for tears?

Mother’s here. Mother— What are you doing here? No. No! Go away! Haven’t you done enough? No!

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My love, don’t cry, don’t cry, my love! Mother’s here!

Don’t cry, my love, don’t cry!

Don’t cry, my love, my life!

Mother’s here. He who raped me will not rob me.

My love!

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He’s slipping! He’s slipping!

My love!

My hands are thin as vapor, my whole body contracting into itself—

My love!

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I cannot breathe. My child! Darkness presses in on my temples, throbbing. I gasp. Burning, burning. The harder I gasp, the less I take in. The air is like nothing, the sun is like death.

Thrashes the ground,

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The pain is unending. My child weeps. My love, forgive me!

Gods preserve me! Let me hold my son again!

I squeeze you as tight as I dare. I won’t let them take you.

Mama loves you—I love you!

My tears run down your smooth, fresh face, your cheeks mottled crimson with distress.

My love, in you is all my love. I give you all I have to give.

Come, my love—we run!

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Merciful gods, grant me death, but let my child live!

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I struggle to stand, but my legs are like water in motion.

I struggle to plant my feet, but I cannot find them.

My love!

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My bruised heart calms. I don’t understand why. The pounding surge of chaos seems to soften.

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Stoops at the shore and

My precious.

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Do you remember the song I sang when you were small? The song I sang in the precious days, the too-short days? Don’t cry if you don’t. I’ll sing it now, and maybe the breeze will carry my words over the sand and into your ear. And maybe they won’t.

Still, I will sing. And maybe, my son, you will hear.

Κάμω ε ε ε… Νάνι μού το νάνι νάνι κι όπου μου πονεί να γιάνει. Νανι το, που να το χαρώ,

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σαν η ελιά το φύλλο. Σαν τα πουλάκια το νερό και τα βουνά τον ήλιο. Ε ε ε ε…

I make (the sound) e e e ….

Nani (my baby) nani nani and wherever it hurts will heal.

Nani to my baby, whom I enjoy as the olive of its leaf.

As the little birds of the water and the mountains of the sun.

E…e…e…e

Works Cited

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Le Crayon de Dieu Natalie McCauley

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The Twilight Zone Zhao Xu

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dance of the smurfs Neha Hirve

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Yes. No. Daria Karaulova

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Ambiguous eternity

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For months, days, minutes or ages

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Beach Mosque Natalie McCauley

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Eating Fire Nicole Lopez del Carril

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Senegalese Sunset Natalie McCauley

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Gates of Gold Libby Moss

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gunpowder Megan Eloise

to sour you down

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The Professor Zeinfeldt Jamie Sutherland

Marat/Sade Pericles

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Equus in the Downstairs

The Pickwick Papers

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Complete Works

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The Duchess of Malfi

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Disgrace

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*

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Intrigue Mika Koulibaly

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A Note, A Tick Tessa Ayson

heart, tread stamped upon dripping sorrows

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you stopped treading

a moment at a time

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Counting Down Nadeen Alalami

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home/utopia Rabha Ashry

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Hatta, UAE Emily Wang

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Dromedaries Sachi Leith

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and, eyes streaming but now otherwise unimpaired, open my mouth

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Dil e awara Nahal Mustafa

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(Man with an axe) Joey Bui

shooting up through the water pipes

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and then

here and now they are not

sometime in the noon siesta surging through the waterpipes, promising that

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(Man with a broom)

surging through the waterpipes, and sometime in the noon siesta

here and now they are not

and then

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shooting up through the water pipes

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Poem No.2 Cristobal Martinez Yanes

no para siempre,

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sĂşbito piano,

sĂşbito piano,

forte,

ansiosos,

forte,

Anxious,

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