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Literature, PoetryApril 26, 2015

Consider the Ocean

 Breathing Underwater, by Emaan Mahmud

Breathing Underwater by Emaan Mahmud.

for my thinking is made from liquid
in sleep my lover breathes tidal against my bones

and hers are dreams I wish myself inhaled into
always I have had being without this body to consider

and because my father’s cough is a storm swell

I ask a star from what coast sails the lung
which will eventually explode him

and the star tells me what has passed through
so much blue must stop passing       here

I have seen my grandfather lost in the foam
and his Alzheimer’s slipping between

my mother’s fingers and her hair behind her
all over the wrecked sand like seaweed

for I am the shore where everyone I love ends

the brown of my mother’s perm pulling apart
the three gone teeth from my father’s mouth

fallen down and my sister Sarah is a scattered mist
I can’t gather together     how long a crew must pass as one

through water before it arrives at its disintegration
is it the wind the crew shares or a family touching is it love

for I am so solid I am told I am so solid the star told
and what would I know of holding a thing not me together

I am neither ship nor ocean
I am the thing the ocean wrecks the ship into

~ Ephraim Scott Sommers

Ephraim Scott Sommers is currently working on his PhD at Western Michigan University, where he teaches creative writing. A singer and guitar player, Ephraim has produced three full-length albums of music and toured both nationally with his band Siko and internationally as a solo artist.  

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One last love letter...

April 24, 2021

It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.

But… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth.

We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…

Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature.

If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at maryamp@themissingslate.com.

Farewell, fam! It’s been quite a ride.

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