Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Aimee Nezhukumatathil (1974- ) born in Chicago she is an American poet and essayist. She currently serves as poetry editor of Sierra Magazine and as professor of English in the University of Mississippi's MFA program, where she previously was the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence in 2016-17. Nezhukumatathil draws upon her Filipina and Malayali Indian background to give her perspective on love, loss, and land.

The light here on earth keeps us plenty busy: a fire

in central Pennsylvania still burns bright since 1962.

Whole squads of tiny squid blaze up the coast of Japan

before sunrise. Of course you didn’t show when we went

searching for you, but we found other lights: firefly,

strawberry moon, a tiny catch of it in each other’s teeth.

Someone who saw you said they laid down

in the middle of the road and took you all in,

and I’m guessing you’re used to that—people falling

over themselves to catch a glimpse of you

and your weird mint-glow shushing itself over the lake.

— Aimee Nezhukumatathil from ‘Letter to the Northern Lights’