The Wild Fox of Yemen by Threa Almontaser

In her debut collection, Threa Almontaser allows us into her world. This is the rare book that gives us the ability to glimpse what it’s like to be someone else. A lot of books try this, but few succeed. The Wild Fox of Yemen is a book of otherness. The speaker lives in otherness—an immigrant in the US, an outsider to Yemen. Her identity is split, and the poems mix languages unapologetically, without gloss (in any sense of the word). The language is broken, out of sorts. But the speaker is not. This is a beautiful book. Buy here.

From “Muslim with Dog”

. . . There is a golden retriever being trained / to chase kids at the border. There is another / by a fireplace, head on someone’s knee as they’re stroked. / Both work hard for their purpose. / Neither wants to crouch alone in a parking lot / quivering against whatever wind // is rising . . .

From “I Crack an Egg”

. . . It smells like a burning omelet. / Suddenly, her mother is there—there, scouring / her hands raw with Brillo and stove fire, / whispering through the crunch of eggshell teeth, / Don’t mistake softness as something owed to you.

From “When White Boys Ask to See My Hair”

My hair is not taking any visitors right now. // My hair was used as a banner on the moon. // My hair is belly dancing on an auntie’s tabletop. // My hair fell off the long line on Mt. Everest trying to take a selfie. . .