#36: Deixis Downlink
A monthly correspondence: February 2024
Deixis Journal Archive
An excerpt from Halima Abukar’s “Bodies of Water”.
Featured in Deixis Journal No.1
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“…We stood together at the brink of the world, beaming out at the horizon where air met water and earth met sky met land met ocean and we stood there at sunrise. The orange and reddish hues of the ether were no distraction, because you were too busy confronting yourself with your failures, your inability to understand things without experiencing them yourself. I tried to make you forget them with my eyes, with my hand on your chest, with my forehead pressing on yours. But no matter. You cleared your throat, and began, “Isn’t it so much easier to do nothing, nothing at all?”
This lie is sturdy because it washes your truth away, I thought.”
In Deep Thought: Life Sh*t
If I am not mistaken, true honor comes in the form of hardships and responsibility. If one is not being tried and placed in situations that could alter the very state of their person’s existence, or that of their people, in the most detrimental of terms, then it would mean they have been forgotten, both by God and people of regard. With an honorable lifestyle comes a state of repetition: one of sacrifice, pain, longing, and great striving; what is unfortunate about this, however, is that with every accomplishment or righteous decision, comes an even greater obstacle awaiting. Nothing gets easier… it might for a time, possibly even for a long while, but no man shall rest while the rest of the world is tested. Whether it be with desires or doubts, insecurities or great wealth, short-term contentment, or a strong need for patience. Every trial passed and overcome presents a new battle that requires even more from an individual. Sacrifices unseen at one point in time become a reality, loved ones and acquaintances assume new forms of existence to test the individual’s loyalty and love, and the almighty may even place in their heart a weakness that they must strive to revive before it overcomes them. After all, this life shit was never meant to be easy, and one can only say this because this life sh*t only ever made sense.
*As featured in Bilal Bikile Mohamed’s 2020-21 “Lost Inside Journal”.
Deixis Book Club
Not a real book club (yet), just a bit about what we’re currently reading.
Halima recently read the book, Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
This collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri became a favorite of mine immediately after the first page and the first story, “A Temporary Matter,” which details the current life of a married couple and the course of their marriage after tragedy. The electricity shuts off, and they share dinner, quietly, with candles surrounding them. They have to face each other in silence, with no distractions, and Jhumpa writes so descriptively that I feel I am with them, sharing the awkwardness.
The stories weave in and out of each other, and they make me feel like I am let in on a secret. They are so beautiful and satisfying that they enveloped me while I was reading. The world did not exist.
An Excerpt from Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
“In the dimness, he knew how she sat, a bit forward in her chair, ankles crossed against the lowest rung, left elbow on the table.”