Issue > Poetry
Soheila Ghaussy

Soheila Ghaussy

Soheila Ghaussy was born in Hamburg, Germany, and grew up in Kabul, Afghanistan. She earned a Master's degree in English at the University of Hamburg, where she also served as an editor of the Hamburg Open Poetry Circle. After relocating to the U.S., she earned a doctorate in Comparative Literature. Soheila is an active writer and professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Ode To The Gypsy Soul

When they ask: how do you care
for pots and pans, why are your cupboards bare,
your bed bedecked in foreign fur, why are
your color-covered floors so old?
I say: I make my home with gypsies

When they chide: why do you look
so wild, your hair afire, and flower
skirts and tattered shirts, at every scene
your eyes a coal-rimmed green? I say:
I learned my look from gypsies

When they complain: why do you sing
odd tunes of wolves, and birds that fly
across full lands and frothy seas, why
do you not hold still for due decrees?
I say: my child has played with gypsies

But when they hiss:

your restless blood—thick muck—
will choke your veins, will travel
as a poison to your brain, I laugh:
my heart beats big like a gypsy's

And when they howl: how come
you're gray, yet all your face is lit
with glee, your wrinkles hold the mist
of every body's history? I say:
my soul is that of gypsies

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