History’s Most Persecuted Minority is Insensitive to the Aspirations of the World’s Most Dispossessed Tribe

by Rafiq Kathwari As Fareed drove in soft rain through red lights to Maimonides, my sister-in-law Farrah, and I sat in the back seat of the sky-blue Volkswagen van. “Kicking,” she said, placing my hand on her round belly. Shy, I gazed at her polished toes in flip-flops. A stork dropped a boy in Brooklyn…

Poem

Prophets on the Nairobi Expressway by Rafiq Kathwari “Please take the next flight to Nairobi,” my niece said, her voice cracking over WhatsApp. “Mom is in ICU. Lemme know what time your flight lands. I’ll send the car.” Early February morning on the Upper West Side, I wore a parka, pashmina scarf, cap, gloves, rode the…

Migrants

by Rafiq Kathwari When I was ten, Grandpa drove me on a crisp autumn evening to see geese, gulls, and ducks descend with expanded wings on Wular. “Asia’s largest freshwater lake,” he said. “They fly in disciplined formation like copper-tipped arrows across the desolation of sky, along Himalayan foothills, arcing between Mughal domes from Kashgar…