Issue 36 Summer Special Edition: Mother-in-Law | Aisha Ali
"How could I have known then / That my happiness would cause her pain / That my misery would bring her joy..."
Welcome to KHÔRA, a dynamic online arts space produced in collaboration with Lidia Yuknavitch’s Corporeal Writing. Visit our Archive to read previous issues. Scroll down if you’d like your work to be considered for future issues.
Issue 36: Special Edition
Do you have more in your inbox than you can read in a day? Us too. In this Issue 36 Special Edition, we’ll send you one piece at a time rather than the entire issue all at once. If you’d like to be considered for future publications, scroll down to learn more about KHÔRA’s 500 Words and KHÔRA’s Images.
Today’s poem is by Aisha Ali. Aisha is a physician whose poetry has appeared in Quail Bell Magazine.
Check out the full Issue 36 Special Edition here, and if you missed our previous issues, visit our Archive.
Mother-In-Law by Aisha Ali
The sky was electric
That night we walked all the way to the shore
The wind blew ferociously off the lake
The rain came down in waves so dense
It felt like we were already underwater
Tucked behind the cathedral
We looked into each other’s eyes adoringly
As we hid in the arched golden doorway
The solace we found in that moment
Inimitable to this day
A love so pure it was almost holy
You’d think we’d taken shelter in the Kaaba itself
We went back there once more
Two years later
At the break of dawn
You prayed like you were in Mecca
And in the name of God
Asked me to marry you…
Read Mother-In-Law.
Issue 36 Highlights
Issue 36 Special Edition: Strawberry Lipgloss
Issue 36 Special Edition: Lost in Midtown
Issue 36 Special Edition: Olympia Billiards
Issue 36 Special Edition: Gut Feeling
Issue 36 Special Edition: Mother-In-Law
Issue 36 Special Edition: Please Leave A Message
Artists and Writers
We’re looking for features and our future teams! To enter KHÔRA’s collaborative waters:
Writers, read about KHÔRA’s 500 Words here.
Artists, send your artwork to KHÔRA's Images here.
Team-based, collaborative, and curated, KHÔRA is a form that is continually opening. We invite you to join us in sustaining it together. We don't believe in rejections. KHÔRA’s 500 Words is about considering how multiple voices can be heard; how frameworks, traditions, and projects can inform each other; and how new perspectives emerge from collaboration and openness. If you are a visual artist or interested in sharing your artwork or images, ready about KHÔRA’s Images here.
Your words/images will always remain active in KHÔRA’s ocean, and you won’t ever receive a notice of rejection from us. We know this process is not perfect; we wish to stay open to the possibility that at any point, your work will be a fit for a curated issue or team collaboration. This doesn’t need to be a completed piece—think of it like a sample of your work at any length up to 500 words.
Once you send 500 Words, your work will remain in our inclusive and expansive space. You can send 500 Words more than once—there’s no limit to how many times you can send us new work; just no repeats, please. KHÔRA doesn’t publish previously published work, but feel free to share any 500 words you want as a sample (published or unpublished).
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With galactic gratitude,
Leigh Hopkins
and the Corporeal/KHÔRA squad