In Place of River I’ll Use [God]

In Place of River I’ll Use [God]

April 24, 2026 , ,

By EZZA AHMED

Ten days behind my tongue
summer in the diasporic, 
riding thick in the smell of [God]
and fresh cloves.

By [God] I mean the monsoon season
where water appeared in snake-like streams 
erasing all traces of my
present tense.

I guess I didn’t mind,
because the ground would wet into a fresh mirror
which really meant that I was
[God ?]

And I know, when [God]
calls out to you,
you only look back once. 

 

[Purchase Issue 31 here.] 

 

Ezza Ahmed is an educator and poet based in New York City. Her poetry is concerned with diaspora, memory, and water (rivers, creeks, lakes, etc.). Her work is in The Idaho Review, Ginger Bug Press, Sycamore Review, Apogee Journal, The Michigan Review, and Adi Magazine. 

From the beginning, The Common has brought you transportive writing and exciting new voices. We are committed to supporting writers and maintaining free, unrestricted access to our website, but we can’t do it without you. Become an integral part of our global community of readers and writers by donating today. No amount is too small. Thank you!

In Place of River I’ll Use [God]

Related Posts

Headshot of bergita bugarija

In the Know

BERGITA BUGARIJA
Iskra studied the layout of the cash drawer, focusing on the denominations, not the men depicted on the bills. If she cared for history, she would have stayed in Croatia, a place where people chose to live in the past. She’d come close to doing so herself. Had she signed that contract, she’d now be teaching high-schoolers the fatiguing lessons of history to distract them from the present. Instead, the turn of the millennium felt like the right time to start fresh.

November 6, 2026

Lucky Magarac Killing It

ADMIR SKODO
My first name is Lazar. My last name is Magarac. Back home it means “donkey.” Here it means nothing except the last name of Lucky, which means, luckily, no jokes of how I’m donkey this, donkey that.

November 6, 2026