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We regret to inform you of your grief.
We apologize for the delay
in the processing of your grief.
We thank you for your patience.
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Please forward all inquiries
regarding your grief.
We will address your grief
as soon as possible.
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We regret to inform you of your grief.
We regret, we regret. May we suggest
you bloodlet, sublet a bloodlet, for instant relief

of grief? Your grief is incurable, intractable,
impractical. Let one of our staff show you
how to rid yourself of grief.
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of grief? Please explain. Do tests
confirm you are a carrier of grief? No, or Yes?
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We apologize for the wait.
Rest assured your grief is important to us.
But your grief is chronic and cannot be addressed.

 
Dilruba Ahmed

Dilruba Ahmed’s debut book, Dhaka Dust (Graywolf Press, 2011), won the Bakeless Prize for Poetry awarded by the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. Her poems have appeared (or will soon appear) in Alaska Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, Memorious, New England Review, and Poetry. Her work has also been anthologized in Literature: The Human Experience (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016), Indivisible: An Anthology of Contemporary South Asian American Poetry (University of Arkansas, 2010), and elsewhere. Ahmed is a lecturer in creative writing at Bryn Mawr College and lives in greater Philadelphia. www.dilrubaahmed.com

http://www.dilrubaahmed.com
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A Brief History of Violence