Backroads

By Kashif Andrew Graham 

I will always drive the backroads

for there I met the Lord

 

There he came to me

arms out

                        palms up

take me

come to me

know me

 

For there he came to me

arms back

                  palms

together in metal cuffs

I can’t breathe

 

For there he came to me

arms before

                  palms up

a golden hijab

this is my body

 

I could not see his face.

Kashif Andrew Graham is a writer and theological librarian. His reading and writing interests are queer & Black lit, the 1920s novels of racial passing, and the modern South. He holds a Master of Science in Information Sciences from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, a Master of Arts in Church Ministry from the Pentecostal Theological Seminary, and a Bachelor of Arts in English Honors Literature and Spanish Language and Literature. He is currently working on a novel about an interracial gay couple living in East Tennessee.