If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English

by Noor Naga

“I am not what you think I am. You are what you think I am.”

Venus is in retrograde, he said. We feel a strong impulse to break out of cycles we’ve been trapped in for years. Moving across the Atlantic may not be the answer, though.

QUESTION: Is science enough to explain why you see a mirage when you’re dying of thirst?

I’m caught between my desire to understand and my desire to appear as though I already understand.

QUESTION: How long can you hate yourself before everyone else hates you too?

It was excessive, imaginative, punishing in a way that only fiction could or should be. This is the shape of narrative climax, but what is it doing in my life?