wildscape. literary journal

Enas is our featured poet for Issue 8. Below is her poem, and beneath that, a series of questions and responses between Enas and our Editor-in-Chief, Ophelia Monet.

Fire
by Enas Suleiman

                                                 There 
                                                 are no 
                                            sirens there. 
                                            By the time 
                                             you realise
                                         what happened 
                                         you are already 
                                      knee-deep digging
                                         small graves for 
                                         the children you 
                                           went to fetch
                                               water for. 
                                          Bucket in hand, 
                                         you must decide 
                                         whether to water 
                                       their graves in case 
                                    they get thirsty, or put
                                      out the raging fire in 
                                              your chest. 
                                         And what kind of
                                  harm can a displacement 
                                     camp shelter anyway?
                             A child daydreaming in crayons, 
                          or a mother removing her own skin 
                                to keep her babies clothed? 
                                           When I’m asked
                                            where I’m from, 
                                           I unmute the TV, 
                                       put it on the highest
                                      volume for the world 
                                             to hear these 
                                           goddamn sirens.

Interview with Enas

Ophelia: Tell me about your background as a writer. What caused you to start writing? Do you tend to lean more towards writing poetry, or other forms of writing, too?

Enas: I think it was in Year 8 that we read Z for Zachariah by Robert O’Brien in English literature class. We were tasked to write a poem, story, or diary entry about the main character who was the sole survivor of a nuclear war. I always gravitated towards poetry for my creative assignments, perhaps it came from a place of loneliness like in the novel, I am not really sure.

This particular assignment was the first I read out shyly to an audience, so it has stayed with me over the years as motivation to write and share.

Ophelia: As poets and writers, we oftentimes are moved to write because something specific happens. Tell me about what fueled you to write “Fire”.

Enas: To put it simply – the state of the world, specifically Sudan, my home country.

Three years on, Sudan is continuing to endure the ramifications of a senseless war that is causing death, disease, systematic violence against young girls and women, collapsed health and education systems and infrastructure damage.

It is unfathomable that there is little to no media coverage, and I think the silence, compacted with anger and feeling like the world has let us down, fueled this poem.

Ophelia: This poem is already powerful in its own right. The formatting of this poem adds more power to the punch. What caused you to format “Fire” the way you did? What is the meaning behind it?

Enas: I did not initially plan to shape the poem as fire but each time I re-read it I felt the anger carried was getting too big to hold, like a ravenous fire eating everything in its path in rage.

Ophelia: I really love the way you incorporated sound into this piece, as well as the strong imagery you used throughout. Specifically, how you both started and ended the poem with sirens, which are the background noise to the imagery and story-telling of this poem, until the end, when the sirens are no longer in the background, but instead at the forefront. Without telling us that the sirens are muted, the reader automatically places them in the background, until you “unmute” them at the end. I thought this was extremely well-done. Was this your intention – to instill those sensory aspects into the subconscious mind of the reader? Do you typically use both imagery and sound in your work?

Enas: I wanted readers to plug into what is happening around us and turn the volume all the way up. The world has become accustomed to muting whatever conflict it chooses, as though suffering was an item on a shelf – something we can pass by or put in our trolley. To have empathy, we must put ourselves in the place of others. When we don’t, the heart hardens, and everything outside ourselves will not matter.

This poem was my attempt to bring the images and sounds to the reader, to make them audible and worthy. I hope it landed.

Ophelia: Tell me about your first poetry collection, as well as the second collection you’re currently working on.

Enas: My first collection, Tidal Waves, was published in 2019. My father had passed away a few years prior, and this book gathers some of his memories in short poems. I like the idea of having a place to return to, to still converse with him about nothing over my own cup of tea:

Tea

An infusion of mint
in your clear tea cup,
I remove the floating leaves
and stir in two spoons of sugar.
Oh, how wonderful it would be
if we could share a cup and talk about nothing.

Or when I am looking for peace:

Beads

I count your prayer beads 99 times
between my fingers,
to hear your encrypted murmurs to God
when I can’t find peace.

The second collection explores the grief in love, loss, and identity, and the water that flows between them towards hope.

Ophelia: What’s next for you? What are your goals for your future as a writer?

Enas: I am currently in the process of finding the right publisher for my second book.

A goal would be to keep on navigating the sails and writing on this boat I’m on. If even one person connects with my work, then I am the happiest sailor.

about the author // Enas Suleiman