j c and i ended up in state college a day longer than we'd thought because of storms in philadelphia. we drank green tea, and walked around some more, and were put up in a hotel where we tried to verbally decimate one another. and critiqued sad television until early in the morning, and talked about muslim feminists and judgmentalisms.
i watched the news. i am to the point where, when i watch the news, i feel like retching, or cursing, or physically taking my fists to the streets, and so i no longer watch the news, i whisper ya khaafid, ya raafi', and think of a story l.outlaw told from the days of the US civil rights struggle - '...trying to think of how to explain to my parents what he and i, studying at well-to-do institutions of higher education, were doing in jail for trying to burn down concrete buildings we both admitted couldn't be burnt...and yet the point was that we couldn't do nothing as this was erupting all around us."
in the radium rain
on the greyhound back to state college from visiting t, the police stopped the bus and took off the man across from me in handcuffs.
in the philly airport the line to get into terminal e was hundreds of people long. the man behind me was going on a geological dig, to uncover 12000-year-old turtles. the girl in front of me was friendly, let me jump ahead so i would not miss my flight.
the middle-aged cree woman next to me on the flight back to edmonton told me about her medical conditions, her husband's medical conditions, their foster children and extended family.
wuddistan once more, here for a few days before off again. a book to edit, peas to shell, chickens to eviscerate, a greying spirit to tend, nurture, foster. already it is a monumental task. bismillah.
