Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet is a novelist and a professor of Middle Eastern history at the University of Pennsylvania. Her creative work follows the treacherous path of politics by intruding into people’s personal lives and private spaces. Through her poems and stories, she explores some of the themes of her academic research, including alienation, prejudice, power, love, and violence.
Ebony and ivory / Photo by Blondinrikard Fröberg / Flickr
for Lida Berberian
I remember when I couldn’t read music;
The pile of unfamiliar books lay listless;
my hands glided across every…