the naturalist

The forest is lavish with treasures, pocketable wonders:
worn-smooth stones, burrowing animal bones,
crisp husks of flown cicadas, outgrown shells of river snails.
I take what calls to me—what wills itself to be found.
I don’t seek this fortune; these riches search me out.
There’s a dunam of ancient land that should be mine,
taken before my ancestors imagined me. On the other side
of the world, half a century later, I collect
what the land willingly gives. My partner says,
I think you were a naturalist in a former life.
Perhaps. Or maybe I’m just Palestinian in this one.

the ritual complete

I sunk my toes into the cool sand of Lake Michigan, under a full Pisces moon,
wading in past the hem of my denim shorts to release the ashes of the burned
bay leaf. I wrote what they wanted me to write on the choking spice: marriage. 

In the lapping waves, I counted fifty-two geese fanned across the horizon,
bobbing as the lake’s undulations pulled the earth from beneath my feet.
Moving closer, the moon turned their wings iridescent. I know they have teeth. 

The breeze is a reminder of summer’s waning, nature’s own impending Death
card. It is easier to perform a spell damning my marriage than to say aloud
I’ve fallen in love with a man who wasn’t supposed to love me back, yet does. 

A burned spice, a burned bridge, a pretty thing with sharp teeth, the capacity for pain
I hope never to see. I twisted the cap of the glass jar, letting the ashes fall and dissolve.
A few blew back, turning to mud in the lake droplets on my body. The ritual complete.

Mandy Shunnarah (they/them) is an Alabama-born Appalachian and Palestinian-American writer who calls Columbus, Ohio, home. Their essays, poetry, and short stories have been published in The New York Times, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, and others. They are the winner of the Porter House Review 2024 Editor’s Prize in Poetry and are supported by the Ohio Arts Council, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and the Sundress Academy for the Arts. Their first book, Midwest Shreds: Skating Through America’s Heartland, was released in 2024 from Belt Publishing, and their second book, a poetry collection titled We Had Mansions, is forthcoming from Diode Editions in 2025. Read more at mandyshunnarah.com.

Published April 15 2025