Before you say anything else, I’ve triedit all—cardio and acupuncture, tryptophan and volunteering, smoothies, SSRIs, and living in the moment, or welcoming this fearin place of the other, one palm rivers sweat into the other, as my dentist takes my jaw to shake novocaine into my rootsuntil it lulls my nerves, wild with panic, an …
Nothing tumbles holy verses out of my throat as quickly as this turbulent flight, suddenlyI am praying again to the god I grew up with, a desperate Bismillah to the Most Benevolent,with Surah Al-Fatihah I open, pleaseMost Merciful, propel Your mercy onto this cabinwhere the bumps are so rough, the oxygen masks have dropped,like dead …