Strange Meeting of the Eyes and A Hollow Socket
Ahmad and Taha were praying.
It was the hour of Isha.
Assalamualikum Warahmatullah–
The rocket had hit the main electric pole.
There was silence, darkness everywhere.
None of their faces are in sight of each other.
Ahmad’s face must have glistened though–
An eye and a hollow socket.
It was a strange meeting.
Alaa says she feels like running
In the street till her headscarf flies
In the sky and she flies after it.
The helicopters roaring like lions
To pounce on its prey have
Made them schizophrenic.
Alaa loved Ahmad.
His eyes.
Doomed Infancy
They had taken her out
From the rubble just an hour ago.
Ashraf left in a blaze thirty seconds
Before his wife birthed her.
They had heard the sound of planes
But Ashraf could not clear
The house within five minutes.
How could he– his wife was birthing.
Toothless mouth.
Body ten inches.
Covered in shroud, she looked
Pale, yellow and dry.
She didn't even leave a monologue
Behind for the world to read aloud.
A Mother's Delight
This was on a Thursday afternoon when
I was casting about for a document in
The Godrej almirah,
My mother's dowry.
A maroon bandhani prominent against a chequer of
Gold all over beige fabric catches my eyes.
That's Ammi's twenty-five-year-old saree!
Exclaim I.
My body and its short stature
Do not display many signs of womanhood.
But my love for sarees
Has been growing lately.
Well, I have this urge now,
To adorn the piece.
Have my bosoms outgrown ammi's
When she was my age, newly married?
Yes? No?
Why does her maroon blouse
Fit me then!
Oh, thank God, not very well though.
It's been a while since I learnt
How to drape a saree
I do it on my own.
Since I know, the folds in the front
Were enough to make me weary,
I get done with the pallu first and
Let the weariness barge in next.
I hold my breath and somehow
Manage to tuck that handful of
Carefully draped fabric
Right under where my navel is placed.
Having finished off with adjustments
From shoulders to feet,
I am awestruck.
While I embrace womanhood
With the pallu falling off of my arm, Ammi clicks a picture.
She does that without being asked to do so,
Which is never the case otherwise.
Wouldn't that suffice to prove Ammi is delightful
Now that I look woman enough?
Not-So-Alpha Alpha City
Coastal road project is a fascinating sight
Keep left tempos, four-wheels on the right.
From inside a car on the dexter,
Not-so-luxurious luxury of Kia Sonnet
One finds oneself watching–
The digital billboards flashing
Ads of two bhk in two cr
In the archipelago of seven islands.
And the glistening of sunlight
On the waters of the Arabian sea.
And the spectacular specular reflections.
Sun glitter at its best!
It glitters on the glass structures.
It glitters on the edifices.
It glitters on the structural glazing of the alpha city.
It glitters on the gallery of Antilla.
It glitters on the not-so-roofy roof
Of a not-so-homely home too.
One covered with a not-so-blue blue plastic
With a loaf-size hole in it, from where
The luminescent asbestos sheet peeps.
About the Poet:
Faria Fatima is an English Literature graduate from Miranda House, University of Delhi. Currently, she is pursuing further studies in English Literature at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.