Sheema Kalbasi
After the River
We crossed where the bridge had fallen,
Carrying what light we could.
No one spoke of the missing,
Only of rain,
And how it washed the footprints clean.
We saw dead birds flat on the river,
Their wings branched, broken, burned.
At dusk, the water glimmered,
As if it had forgiven us
For surviving.
Sheema Kalbasi is an Iranian American poet, humanitarian, and historian. Her work explores themes of feminism, war, exile, refugees, and human rights. A Pushcart Prize winner, she has also been nominated for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation, is a recipient of a United Nations humanitarian award, and has received grants from the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her books include Echoes in Exile (PRA Publishing, 2006) and Spoon and Shrapnel: Verse and Wartime Recipes (Daraja Press, 2024). Her poetry has appeared in The Kenyon Review, been featured by PEN America and NPR, and has been anthologized and translated into more than twenty languages, adapted into short films, set to music, and presented in venues such as the Smithsonian National Museum, the Tribute World Trade Center in New York, and the Canadian Parliament.
