[Persian Letters] by Solmaz Sharif

[Persian Letters]

 

Dear Aleph,

 

Like Ovid: I’ll have no last words.

This is what it means to die among barbarians. Bar bar bar

was how the Greeks heard our speech —

sheep, beasts — and so we became

barbarians. We make them reveal

the brutes they are, Aleph, by the things

we make them name. David,

they tell me, is the one

one should aspire to, but ever since

I first heard them say Philistine

I’ve known I am Goliath

if I am anything.