Learning Arabic
By Misbah Wolf
Published 23 August 2026
The djinn lived in an onyx ring.
At the mosque
a man stood
with a whiteboard and a pen
We sat in rows.
Small bodies.
Washed up
Alif.
Bey.
Tey
The mouth learned first
Meaning followed later
God arrived
after sound
I knew the language
knew things
before it named them.
I knew it was spoken
between children
when adults were not listening
At lunch the wind lifted my scarf.
I held my head very still
Some powers
don’t like to be seen
We raised our voices together
The words moved through us
like sleep.
Leave pen and paper beside your bed. Next time you wake in the night, don’t turn on the light. Write with your non-dominant hand until waking fully arrives.
Misbah Wolf
#30in30 #PoetryMonth
Poetry interrupts what we have been conditioned to ignore. It does not mean paper. It does not require permission, institutions, or even an audience.
