issue 2
Koukash Review
2023
my father calls me American when
he doesn’t agree with me
I remind him that he is, too
he says it isn’t the same
he’s right, of course
so I say
what about Gulali,
studying for nursing exams
in her third language?
what about khoharam jaan,
turning into a teenager in secret
over online tunnels?
what about the new baby boy,
born safely amidst death
to our sighs of relief?
he says American
as an antithetical
whenever he says it, I think of summers
growing up without him
Fourth of Julys
when the farm town around me
would balloon with visitors
lined down main street to watch
a parade of cheerleaders and hot rods
and National Guard members
rolling across the brick in their tanks.
Alexandra Millatmal
Alexandra Millatmal is a software engineer and writer based in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Her writing has appeared or in What is Afghan Punk Rock, Anyway?, Equinox, and The Margins. Alex’s work has been supported by the Lighthouse Writers Workshop, VONA Voices, and the Afghan American Artists and Writers Association. When she’s not thinking about expressive programming patterns, Alex spends time thinking about narrative bias, mutual aid, poetic forms, and queerness as liberation.