Poetry by C. Christine Fair
I called Safina today to check on her invalid mother
in Pakistan. Rather than being sad or even worried,
she was joyous and exuberant. I feel so guilty.
But, honestly, I’m on my honeymoon!
She explained that she ran into her delicious ex,
stocking up on produce at the Giant.
Now, they are co-isolating. She conceded,
We have no future. But we have no other place to be.
Original art by poet. Charcoal on paper.
C. Christine Fair is a professor in Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program within the School of Foreign Service. She studies political and military events of South Asia and travels extensively throughout Asia and the Middle East. Her books include In Their Own Words: Understanding the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (OUP 2019); Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army’s Way of War (OUP, 2014); and Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States (Globe Pequot, 2008). Her forthcoming book is Lines of Control: Lashkar-e-Tayyaba’s Militant Piety, with Saifina Ustad (Oxford University Press, 2020). She has published creative pieces in The Bark, The Dime Show Review, Furious Gazelle, Hyptertext, Lunch Ticket, Clementine Unbound, Awakenings, Fifty Word Stories, The Drabble, Sandy River Review, Sonder Midwest, Black Horse Magazine, Barzakh Magazine, Bluntly Magazine, Badlands Literary Journal, among others. Her visual poetry has appeared in pulpMAG, The Indianapolis Review, Typehouse Literary Magazine, The New Southern Fugitives, Glassworks and forthcoming pieces in Existere Journal of Arts & Literature PCC Inscape Magazine. She causes trouble in multiple languages.
Arcturus 