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  • Issue #27 Spring 2024
    • Issue #27 Art Spring 2024 >
      • Kristina Erny Spring 2024
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      • Liza Olson Spring 2024
  • Issue #28 Fall 2024
    • Issue #28 Art Fall 2024 >
      • Eric Calloway Fall 2024
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    • Issue #28 Poetry Fall 2024 >
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  • Issue #29 Spring 2025
    • Issue #29 Art Spring 2025 >
      • Irina Greciuhina Spring 2025
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      • Diego Báez Spring 2025
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      • Sara Fitzpatrick Spring 2025
      • Matthew Gilbert Spring 2025
      • Tammy C. Greenwood Spring 2025
      • Alejandra Hernández ​Spring 2025
      • Ben Kline ​Spring 2025
      • ​David Moolten Spring 2025
      • ​Tamer Mostafa Spring 2025
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      • Cynthia Neely Spring 2025
      • Pablo Otavalo Spring 2025
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Elyse Thomas

The Sound of Dreams in Tehran


          I tilted my head back, letting clustered dew coil along the bridge of my nose and slip between parted lips. My hands slithered into the air, reaching for the wind chimes tangled along the roof of the abandoned shed. I listened to their faint music, humming softly.
          “Aara!” A voice skipped across the silence.“Aara!”
          I smoothed my fingers along the grooves of my ear lobes, pressing against them to block the sound of my older sister’s voice.
          “Aara!” A figure stood in front of me.
          “Eshal, go away. I’m tired.” My voice fluttered along the shed.
          “Mama says we need to go, Aara.” Eshal tugged at my hidden wrists. “We need to go deep in the city today.”
          “Alright.” I stood up, smoothing down my long skirt and taking her left hand.
          We walked across the small, vert hill, waiting to see the vast forest of rubble and light beige streets. Mama waited there, cloaked in heavy cloth and annoyance.
          “Why did you take so long?” Her almond-shaped eyes glared at us beneath her hijab. I began, “It’s my fault, Ma-”
          “Hush. We need to go to the square.” She briskly walked forward.
          Our feet intertwined with caving crevices and the slender, black limbs of the other people like us, lost and without place to call home.
          Mama told us to ignore them, keeping our eyes to the city and the reflection of the blond sun. She told us to breathe in the hills that lay under the city and the concrete that lay above it, mixing them together in our nostrils and then breathing them out separated, two scents not leaving as one; she said it was good distraction.
          Our feet ached from the long miles traveled to the center of Tehran, and our wrinkled foreheads held the bitter notes of fragile sweat. My clothes fastened around my arms, enveloping my skin with the humid air.
          White and gray plaster lined the floors of the outdoor space, circling the cobalt pool of water in the center. The Azadi Tower the Freedom Tower of Tehran lay towards the end of the square. Its white marble reflected images of beggars coaxing tourists with chapped lips and blistered fingertips. I searched for our gangly figures in the cut marble and dissonance of our lives.
          Mama had us sit down on the rim of the pool, calling strangers and asking for money to help us live.
          “Please.” Her voice echoed against the rusty, dented bowl we used to collect money. “Please. It’s for my children. I have no husband. They need to eat. We need to eat.” She motioned towards her mouth, and we motioned towards our stomachs.
          A man walked towards us, his wide-brimmed hat fanning over his ebony sunglasses.
          He carefully placed 500 rials, a golden coin glinting in the depths of the metal bowl.
          We collected more money from tourists, but the rich people of Tehran glared at Mama’s sagging skin. Mama let the insults that flowed from their lips hit her hijab and not her.
          We left Azadi Square, heading for the street Jalal Al Ahmad. On the way, Mama pointed to places of her childhood and little nooks she hid in while she worked in the city. She taught us secret codes and ways to obtain rials and free, leftover food from street vendors at the end of the day. Her eyes curved upward as if they could smile at the memories and nostalgia of her past.
          In the street, we burrowed around the traffic, tapping against windows and shaking our pot. Honks echoed across the grey sky, and taxi driver heads overturned through open windows, yelling at one another to speed along the asphalt road.
          Mama begged for more money while Eshal and I sat on the curb and took a break.
          We breathed in the smell of street vendor food; chelo, rice, and meat kebobs wafted through the heavy air. Bent, silver ladles bellowed from stew pots, and street vendors called to the public, pushing their voices into hollowed ears.
          My eyes examined trailing street shops until they settled on a tourist shop on the corner. Trinkets and postcards of Tehran embraced the flutter of the wind. Wind chimes hung in the doorway of the shop. These glowed silver, new metal draped across its cylindrical body, and warm sounds sung from in between its circular lips unlike the rusty ones by the shed on the outskirts of Tehran. I wanted them, but knew I’d never get them because Papa was in prison for trying to escape Iran by boat many years ago.           And only men could carry a steady job in Tehran.
          More shouts flew briskly though the air. I pushed my fingers against my ears, hoping maybe the sound of the wind chimes could soothe the call of my disastrous city. It didn’t work.
          We went back to work, collecting money until the sky turned to a velvety navy. Mama took us to the street vendors, taking the cold, leftover khoresht, stew, and lavash, thin papery bread. We ate on the way home, tired and broken.
          When we reached the outskirts of Tehran, I sauntered over to the shed, head scratching splintered boards. That night, I dreamed of living in a villa with golden gates and a garden of inverted tulips for Eshal and big rooms for Mama. The wind chimes showered the villa.
          I awoke to the sound of Eshal’s voice and her figure trying to get me to do the same routine again. As we walked to the Azadi Tower, I heard a familiar sound in the distance, the dirty wind chimes kissing our ears.




--
Elyse Thomas is a student in the creative writing program at Miami Arts Charter School. She has been and currently is being published in 5 poetry anthologies. She has also received 2 gold keys, 3 silver keys, and 4 honorable mentions in Scholastic. Elyse has read her poetry on the stage of the Adrienne Arsht Center.

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  • Home
  • About
    • Our Story
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  • Features
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  • Issue #27 Spring 2024
    • Issue #27 Art Spring 2024 >
      • Kristina Erny Spring 2024
      • Luiza Maia Spring 2024
      • Christy Lee Rogers Spring 2024
      • Erika Lynet Salvador Spring 2024
      • Marsha Solomon Spring 2024
    • Issue #27 Poetry Spring 2024 >
      • Terry Belew Spring 2024
      • Dustin Brookshire​ & Diamond Forde Spring 2024 Spring 2024
      • Dustin Brookshire​ & Caridad Moro-Gronlier Spring 2024 Spring 2024
      • Charlie Coleman Spring 2024
      • Isabelle Doyle Spring 2024
      • Reyzl Grace Spring 2024
      • Kelly Gray Spring 2024
      • Meredith Herndon Spring 2024
      • Mina Khan Spring 2024
      • Anoushka Kumar Spring 2024
      • Cate Latimer Spring 2024
      • BEE LB Spring 2024
      • Grace Marie Liu​ Spring 2024
      • Sarah Mills Spring 2024
      • Faisal Mohyuddin 2024
      • Marcus Myers Spring 2024
      • Mike Puican Spring 2024
      • Sarah Sorensen Spring 2024
      • Lynne Thompson Spring 2024
      • Natalie Tombasco Spring 2024
      • Alexandra van de Kamp Spring 2024
      • Donna Vorreyer Spring 2024
    • Fiction #27 Spring 2024 >
      • Bryan Betancur Spring 2024
      • Karen George Spring 2024
      • Raja'a Khalid Spring 2024
      • Riley Manning Spring 2024
      • Adina Polatsek Spring 2024
      • Beth Sherman Spring 2024
    • Nonfiction #27 Spring 2024 >
      • Liza Olson Spring 2024
  • Issue #28 Fall 2024
    • Issue #28 Art Fall 2024 >
      • Eric Calloway Fall 2024
      • Matthew Fertel Fall 2024
      • JooLee Kang Fall 2024
      • Jian Kim Fall 2024
      • Robb Kunz Fall 2024
      • Sean Layh Fall 2024
    • Issue #28 Poetry Fall 2024 >
      • Jodi Balas Fall 2024
      • Clayre Benzadón Fall 2024
      • Catherine Broadwall Fall 2024
      • Sara Burge Fall 2024
      • Judith Chalmer Fall 2024
      • Stephanie Choi Fall 2024
      • Sarah Jack Fall 2024
      • Jen Karetnick Fall 2024
      • Ae Hee Lee Fall 2024
      • Svetlana Litvinchuk Fall 2024
      • Mary Lou Buschi Fall 2024
      • Angie Macri Fall 2024
      • Gary McDowell Fall 2024
      • Sam Moe Fall 2024
      • Camille Newsom Fall 2024
      • Elizabeth O'Connell- Thompson Fall 2024
      • Olatunde Osinaike Fall 2024
      • Jessica Pierce Fall 2024
      • Diane Raptosh Fall 2024
      • Isaac Richards Fall 2024
      • Robyn Schelenz Fall 2024
      • Christopher Shipman Fall 2024
      • Alex Tretbar Fall 2024
      • Ruth Williams Fall 2024
      • Shannon K. Winston Fall 2024
      • Wendy Wisner Fall 2024
      • Anne Gerard Fall 2024
    • Issue #28 Fiction Fall 2024 >
      • J​oe Baumann Fall 2024
      • ​Morganne Howell Fall 2024
      • Matt Paczkowski Fall 2024
      • Ryan Peed Fall 2024
      • Gabriella Pitts Fall 2024
      • James Sullivan Fall 2024
  • Issue #29 Spring 2025
    • Issue #29 Art Spring 2025 >
      • Irina Greciuhina Spring 2025
      • Jesse Howard Spring 2025
      • Paul Simmons Spring 2025
      • Marsha Solomon Spring 2025
      • Elzbieta Zdunek Spring 2025
      • Na Yoon Amelia Cha-Ryu Spring 2025
    • Issue #29 Poetry Spring 2025 >
      • Deborah Bacharach Spring 2025
      • Diego Báez Spring 2025
      • Jaswinder Bolina Spring 2025
      • ​Ash Bowen Spring 2025
      • Christian J. Collier Spring 2025
      • ​Shou Jie Eng Spring 2025
      • Sara Fitzpatrick Spring 2025
      • Matthew Gilbert Spring 2025
      • Tammy C. Greenwood Spring 2025
      • Alejandra Hernández ​Spring 2025
      • Ben Kline ​Spring 2025
      • ​David Moolten Spring 2025
      • ​Tamer Mostafa Spring 2025
      • ​Rongfei Mu Spring 2025
      • Cynthia Neely Spring 2025
      • Pablo Otavalo Spring 2025
      • ​Bleah Patterson Spring 2025
      • ​M.A. Scott Spring 2025
      • ​Liam Strong ​ Spring 2025
      • Alexandra van de Kamp Spring 2025
      • ​Cassandra Whitaker Spring 2025
      • Angelique Zobitz Spring 2025
    • Issue #29 Fiction Spring 2025 >
      • Vanessa Blakeslee Spring 2025
      • K. J. Coyle Spring 2025
      • Meredith MacLeod Davidson Spring 2025
      • Jessica Mosher Spring 2025
    • Issue #29 Nonfiction Spring 2025 >
      • JM Huscher Spring 2025
      • Qurrat ul Ain Raza Abbas Spring 2025