The History that Traveled
Oct 2022
Zahaan Khalid
The sand of the arid terrain below seeps into the cracks and crevices of a broken man’s skin. The life that he once held and knew, now washed anew through the sand dunes of the Kharan. The emptiness of his mind, soul and wallet allow for a weight inside to grow and overburden.
Along the eastern border, a woman embarks on a rail journey she didn’t know would erase her predecessors. A young and fragile refugee body would traverse a peninsula for the feeling of hope. Surrounded by similar skin contained within an eroded metal box, she feels isolated, but far from alone.
With two generations of time passing, this passage would be made again, by yet another unsatisfied young soul. Green eyes, curly hair, and one of four, he would be the first to traverse farther than his ancestors ever had.
Sweat-filled palms and a green passport, he boarded his flight that felt like it was headed nowhere. With the history of a region embedded within the cornea of his eyes, the risk to leave it all for something more was one he was willing to take.
A new soul, born in the state of hope, now walks the tropical streets of the western edge of the Bermuda Triangle. A place where everything seamlessly disappears, created a new hope for this new soul. Seamlessly floating along Ocean Drive, a gust of wind from the Atlantic drags the moist, perfect sand to this soul’s skin, forcing his history upon him. The history that traveled 1,000 miles to deliver a message.
Zahaan Khalid is from Miami, FL and studies in the College of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.