Conversation Practice

1 Minute Read Time

This photograph captures graffitied walls with a neon signage question mark, being lit in the middle. — Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

Are they bigger than a breadbox? 

Can you hide them in a carry-on? 

Heavier than a gun?

Can you separate them?

Are they typically found in a civilized nation? 

Are they functional?

Were they made in the USA? 

Are they soft?

Made of flesh?

Hairy?

Will they fight back?

Are they darker than you? 

Do they have tongues?

Are they bigger on television? 

Will they listen when you call? 

Are they disposable?

Do they have other names? 

Will you touch them?

Are they here?

Are they

Kaveh Bassiri

is an Iranian-American writer and translator, who was born in Tehran and came to United States as a teenager. He is the author of two chapbooks, 99 Names of Exile (2019), winner of the Anzaldúa Poetry Prize, and Elementary English (2020), winner of Rick Campbell Chapbook Prize. Bassiri is the recipient of a 2022-2023 Tulsa Artist Fellowship, 2021 Individual Artist Fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council, 2020 Artist 360 Grant sponsored by the Mid-America Arts Alliance, and the Bellingham Review’s 49th Parallel Award. His poems have been published or are forthcoming in a number of anthologies and textbooks, including Best American Poetry 2020, Best New Poets 2020, The Heart of a Stranger (2020), Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora (2021), Somewhere We Are Human (2022), A Poetry Pedagogy for Teachers (2022), and Without a Doubt (2023). They can also be found in Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, Virginia Quarterly Review, Copper Nickel, Beloit Poetry Journal, Poetry Northwest, Nimrod International Journal, The Cincinnati Review, and Shenandoah.

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