ANALGESIC
In Arabic the name of frankincense is cognate
with the name of Lebanon. A man offers a kidney
to feed his children. When people harvest myrrh,
they wound the trees repeatedly to bleed them of the gum.
Maya Salameh is the author of HOW TO MAKE AN ALGORITHM IN THE MICROWAVE (University of Arkansas Press, 2022), winner of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize, and the chapbook rooh (Paper Nautilus Press, 2020). She has served as a National Student Poet, America’s highest honor for youth poets, and received fellowships and support from the Breadloaf Environmental Writers' Conference, Sewanee Writers' Conference, Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, and the President's Committee for the Arts and Humanities. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in POETRY, The Offing, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, AGNI, and the LA Times, among others. She can be found @mayaslmh or mayasalameh.com