No-One in the World
by Tiel Aisha Ansari
I’m prowling the streets of Cully looking for a cut-through to Killingsworth that’s not an unimproved road which means gravel and giant potholes because my feet hurt, I haven’t worn barefoot shoes in a long time and I put Band-Aids over my Achilles tendons so no blisters, but I’m tired and I want to catch a bus on Killingsworth before the thunderheads in the southwest turn from blue to black and drench me, although that would cool me down and help me forget half of western Canada is on fire, Lady Liberty is drowning in smoke, and I’m out here walking miles from home because doomscrolling pictures on the news gives me flashbacks to fall 2020 when fire came pouring over the Cascades and down through the canyons—people in Indonesia emailed to ask if we were okay and we said no, no-one in the world is okay right now.
Tiel Aisha Ansari is a Sufi warrior poet. Her work has been featured by Fault Lines Poetry, Windfall, KBOO and an Everyman’s Library anthology, among many others. Her collections include Knocking from Inside, High-Voltage Lines, Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare’s Stable, The Day of My First Driving Lesson, and Dervish Lions. She works as a data analyst for the Portland Public School district and is president emerita of the Oregon Poetry Association and former host of the Wider Window Poetry show on KBOO Community Radio.