& who hasn’t dreamed of absolution, of ECCLESIASTES,of untimid girls who’d array me in their backseat & teachme the dictionary of a mouth, sibilance of penitence or spit?we must remember the Lord, praise Him, blesses us withLEVITICUS thick as fistfuls of February, purple horizon cracklingabove our scalps like aluminum in a microwave, like the Lordwas trying to cook us clean. catechism taught me my body, fit mein my un-Sundayed dress. saffron & myrrh the shape of this liturgy:the Lord has open hands & loves little wraiths like us, the smell ofsugar burning, the leaven bread we break for our dead. the minorprophets, the gas station saints, the neglected apostles, the Lordhas CORINTHIANS stuffed in his pockets for them, & there isenough for everyone to eat. beloveds, my longest relation with theLord is through begging. someone opens a Snapple & says behold,this too is my blood. I am not here to confess. I am here holding thetestimony of our living, the dented psalm of it, your hair in mymouth, freedom is hard work.
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“EXAMPLE SERMON” from MERMAID THEORY: by Maya Salameh.
Published by Haymarket Books on April 07, 2026.
Copyright © 2026 by Maya Salameh.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Maya Salameh is the author of Mermaid Theory (Haymarket Books, 2026) and How to Make an Algorithm in the Microwave (University of Arkansas Press, 2022), winner of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize. Salameh is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, the Sewanee Review Poetry Prize, and the Markowitz Award for Exceptional New Writers. Her work has appeared in The Offing, Poetry, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, AGNI, Mizna, and the LA Times. She can be found @mayaslmh or mayasalameh.com.
In her second full-length collection, Maya Salameh offers a profound exploration of Arab-American identity, weaving together themes of myth, science, and cultural heritage. This daring collection deploys psychological evaluation forms, ritual incantations, and captivating visual poetry.
Salameh transcends simple narratives of shame or violence to offer a nuanced portrayal of identity, exploring both the privileges and heartbreaks of diasporic exile. Her multilingual poetry bridges Arabic and English, enriching the poems’ sonic texture. Salameh scrutinizes established academic and cultural narratives, inviting readers to rethink their own understandings of history and identity.
“I will read anything Maya Salameh writes. This collection is a delight of dream-logic, old and new mythologies, intimacies, hallucinatory sciences.”
—Safia Elhillo, author of Girls That Never Die: Poems
“From Syria to the house party, there is no landscape that Maya Salameh cannot paint with rigorous spirit, delectable lyric, and a fierce poetics all her own.”
—Danez Smith, author of Bluff
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