[07/07/26] Aboutaleb, Leena: THALASSA

Leena Aboutaleb’s debut collection is a magnetic mourning, suspended in the threads of time. Lush and poignant, THALASSA is a love song of misery and grief, tracing the poet’s steps as she dives into the Underworld in search for her brother. THALASSA is a map, moving between temporalities and worlds, from past and present to seen and unseen realms. “Like teethbones, I fail to forget you,” Aboutaleb bemoans, “I knew you. I knew you.” Dreamlike, Aboutaleb’s elegy lights the passage of despair and hope as the poet collapses the ephemeral threshold between the dead and living. Grief is a sea, and Aboutaleb shows us how to build a boat to find a way home.