"Arosak"

for Adele Wiseman

Hollay Ghadery

Hollay Ghadery is a writer living on Anishinaabe land in rural Ontario. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Her fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and reviews have been published in various literary journals, including The Malahat Review, Room, Grain, CAROUSEL, and The Fiddlehead. Her personal essays have also appeared on CBC Parents and LadyLatitudes. Fuse, her meditations on mixed-race identity and mental illness, was published by the Guernica Editions MiroLand imprint in May, 2021.
“‘Arosak’ (the Farsi word for ‘doll’) is an erasure poem from Adele Wiseman’s memoir of creation, motherhood, and her mother’s prolific doll making, Old Woman at Play.”
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life is limited
to what you’re alive to,
so even the doll is
happy to be created,

doesn’t know
you’re not supposed
to be dazzled
by pimp’s packaging
or the carrot
of the future.

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