A celebration of Persian voices and talent

MYLIFEISPERSIAN.NET by Yasmine Ameli

Poetry

MYLIFEISPERSIAN.NET

by Yasmine Ameli
“In our childhoods, loneliness opened the possibility of death.
The alternative was persisting as only half a persian. Person.”

MYLIFEISPERSIAN.NET
by Yasmine Ameli

Today at work, a persian woman asked me if there were any persian associates available to help her. I said I’m half persian. She looks back at me, distraught, and says “Why only half???” MLIP!
Jun 20, 2010 11:59 AM
by yasminu

Today, I created a username to click on your profile and make a persona of you. This is a love note to the commas around distraught, to the double exclamation points after MLIP, to your name with the same pronunciation as mine—and I have never met a girl whose name bore the same pronunciation as mine, so let’s also say we both work in retail, that we are both fitting room girls in particular, and that I too impersonate a woman at my job at American Eagle demanding why only half? I too am one of the 138 people on My Life Is Persian voting areh! your life is Persian, but not because you are only half. In our childhoods, loneliness opened the possibility of death. The alternative was persisting as only half a persian. Person. No one told us the other existed. No one told us our names, always the seven letters of the wrong alphabets, rendered us both dorageh, two wholes within ourselves.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Yasmine Ameli is an Iranian American writer. Her work appears or is forthcoming in POETRY, Ploughshares, The Sun, AGNI, Narrative, BWR, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing through the Loft Literary Center and offers writing coaching services independently. Find her at yasmineameli.com and on Instagram @yasmineameli.

AUTHOR PHOTO BY Emily Cryan • FEATURED IMAGE BY Matt Seymour via Unsplash

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