Yahya Frederickson is a professor of English at Minnesota State University Moorhead. He has served as a Fulbright Scholar in Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Kyrgyz Republic. His collections of poetry include In a Homeland Not Far: New and Selected Poems (Press 53, 2017) and The Gold Shop of Ba-‘Ali (Lost Horse Press, 2014). His translations with Muhammed Shoukany of contemporary Saudi Arabian poets appear in New Voices of Arabia: The Poetry: An Anthology from Saudi Arabia (I. B. Tauris, 2012).
A Kyrgyz Soviet tomb / Photo by Evgeni Zotov / Flickr
Consider
Friend, when you visit cemeteries, don’t be afraid.
All the dead are Kyrgyz, and most of them you know.
Over here is…