“An epic of urban formation followed by dusty abandonment looks menacing next to millions of years of hunting and gathering, as though settled societies are inherently unstable.” — Steven Stoll. “Larding the Lean Earth: Soil and Society in Nineteenth-Century America”. pp. 19 Does this explain the rise and fall of civilizations? Agriculture is inherently unstable;…
Read MoreAll articles filed in Amira K.
Writer, explorer, and keeper of Alder the dog.
Liquidity
In the car, while listening to Muse, my dad said he had finally figured out what exactly it is that Muse does so spectacularly. He said they use the piano in a way that makes the piano sound “liquid”. This seemed to me a remarkably good way of describing their sound – listen to the…
Read MoreSuburban Wasteland
I am walking down Eager Avenue in St. Louis, walking to Borders. I walk past this haven of suburbia past the fountains no one ever notices, past the flowers no one ever smells, across the hot black asphalt with no pedestrian crosswalk because, obviously, why would anyone ever want to walk here? This is dead…
Read MoreThe Far-Distant Horn
[A collaboration by Joey Spadafora and Amira Makansi] A rose in the desert, the rain on the sea I can’t hear your name anymore The sound in my ears is drowned by the screams The voices, the far-distant horn Hold me by the heel and dip me in the Styx I died ten years ago,…
Read MoreShout out
“Some days our future…it seems to hang on so tight Come quickly now, the air hangs heavily today Oh, la, we’ve got a lot to learn from each other, we have got to stick together” One thing I’ve noticed and really come to appreciate this summer is that I have a lot of really awesome…
Read MoreCloser is a relative measure
Dan: I don’t want to hurt you. Alice: So why are you? Alice: No one will love you as much as I do. Why isn’t love enough? Alice: Why do you love her? Is it because she is successful? Dan: No, it’s because she doesn’t need me!
Read MoreFollow Me
I’ve been dragging around from the end of your coat for two weeks everywhere you go is swirling, everything you say has water under it You know I keep your fingerprints in a pink folder in the middle of my table you’re the tall kingdom I surround think I better follow you around
Read MoreCartography
“Louise, in this single bed, between these garish sheets, I will find a map as likely as any treasure hunt. I will explore you and mine you and you will redraw me according to your will. We shall cross one another’s boundaries and make ourselves one nation. Scoop me in your hands for I am…
Read MoreWhy I’m Afraid of Flying
I prefer anticipated endings. I like them because you can say “this is the last time that I will _________”. And then you pay more attention to each passing second, to each grain of sand that slips through your hand. And you treasure it more. The pain of something ending becomes bittersweet rather than a…
Read MoreBlissful Ignorance
Sometimes I wish I were a simpleton on a farm leading a simple life with little to worry about but next years’ harvest and little intellectual capacity beyond the ability to raise sheep and cattle and pigs and crops. This vivid but meaningless life around me swells into absurdity at times and at others diminishes…
Read More
The Z-Axis 