Homespun Lantern

A hope shines brightest in the darkLight up the lanterns in a blazing arcFor hope that shines is hope that pinesAnd despair swells greater at every spark Beyond the realms of human sightThere dwelt anon a crystal lightBright as the darkness of dayIt vowed unto Moonsun to stay Upon the lighting of the world intentUntil …

With The Rising Sun We Fly

The petrichor rising upon the playful breeze Unsteadies the new doctor’s taut-veined hand,Scattering us beyond the shadows of trees A blaze of colour in a starved starched land Upon us the wandering eyes snap into focus Over red, black, purple the wasted hands hover;Then fasten upon one, the warmest green ‘Bunties!’ her glee-made-sound is hocus-pocusTo the fluttering, scuttling, pebble-struck …

The Plaint of Joy

Twice, in a gloaming dream He called out my nameBut when, by the pale moon-beamI answered, with love aflame He simply did not know me Fie upon the dulcet, stirring odes Of all the future may fly in;But O for a clean old set of clothes And a cool soft bed to lie in. [First published in The Platform …

Scarzone

When you touch the edge of something hot - a frying-pan, a clothes-iron - you gasp and flinch away, before the knowledge, before the shock and the hurt and the searing of flesh. Locked in the thumping of your heart then, there is the secret triumph of assault successfully withstood, the inexpressible comfort of knowing …

Gaze At The Stars

Gaze at the stars and spin me a taleOf a wish with a golden crown for a sailFor a wind a child’s sweet sobbing breathAnd the heart of a dragon that knows no death Gaze at the stars and sing me a songTell me I was right all along, yes, all along!To keep a handful …

Leached Hearts

Listen to their fricking ticking hearts Hammering on like a halfboiled frog’sLimp lifedrained leg-muscle that jogs Hurling in panic upon the lid Listen to their ripping dripping hearts Hastening on like a well-trained dog’sLimp onebrained leg-muscle that jogs Hopping only to do as is bid Listen to their slaving caving hearts Heaping up gold to make me El Cid [First …

A Melody

I transcend myself like a melodyI ebb and foam like the tideI drown laughing like a torn cityIn the darkness of the night I journey far like a grizzled swanI wax every day like the sunI wane again like the old elanDriven by age into a herd of one I cast my net like a …

The Tailor

'Now if we take it in a little at the waist, so - And drape the edge over the left arm -Then, good sir, be ye visiting high or low Ye shall give them goodly cause for alarm!' So spake our worthy tailor to his grisly client Who returned him a smile to freeze a giant,Briskly professional, our …

The List

The ship was swaying too much to read without getting a headache and Klytie Dunthair had fallen asleep on top of her dolly. She was too much of a scaredy-kitten to be much fun anyhow, so when I was stuffed full of the ship’s crumbly cupcakes, I snuck up under Aunty’s table to listen. She …

Veiled Star of Destiny

He strides over land like a colossus As Prosper glides into the sea Could he see which way to go O my daughter, If you did not twinkle so? She scurries over land, a singed NarcissusCringing from water she dare not see O paper-vessel of my hopes and dreams Sail forth, take my gaudy ink screams Draped in a …

Throat Fonts

Into my darkness let meaning seep  From unwittingly made    Gut choices   Throat fontsWarning of danger  Tasting of loveScented with joy  Glazed with fear   Throat fontsMarking the stranger  Heralding the shoveFashioned to decoy  Intended to sear May the bones of your speech keep  Reposing in the shade    Of voices [First published in Rigorous]

How Do You Deserve Grace?

Hist! Ye who never learnt to stand nor stare Ye who thunder: ‘First deserve then desire’As ye torch this vaulting dream with your ire  Think on this: What if to desire, to burnIs all the deserving there is? To earn Rain from the desert sky with a prayer? [First published in Remembered Arts]

Five Fried Raisins

Five fried raisins frizzling in the sunI stoop at a ray and pick up oneSearing scorching wizened brown bulletSlides relentlessly down my bruised gullet Four fried raisins frizzling in the sunI stoop to scry and my hair comes undoneBurning bronzing the twisting black curlUnwinds faster than the cobra’s whirl Three fried raisins frizzling in the …

The Swans On The Seine

 “O ugly ducklings grown into beauty, are you homesick too?” Thus I, standing in the shadows of the House of Quasimodo, watching you glide upon these placid waters, O snow-winged sisters of my soul! “Swans fly south for the winter” You, of whom I first read in the sun-baked plains of my homeland soaked in the scent …

Sister Blossoms

Deep in the fastness beyond this glenA blossom pines tethered to a stumpSister blossoms on trees soar above the fenWatch loftily the withering tulip slump Proud, aloof, beautiful; petals held highAnd a cold sour tear-drop sealed in a sigh [First published in The Antinarrative Journal]

Revelation

Anon we perched upon the roof-top pump's pipeI lagging last, cringing from the sun's knife,Leeching shadows from the whispering treesWilting the queens of the night to snow grease I am the first-croaked call of the ravensWho swore never to return to their glensThine errand unfulfilled; but I, I madeAnother promise to the fleeing shade In …

Unleavened Flatbread

The best writing advice I have ever received came from a lunch break discussion with a girl from the Maldives I met during a student exchange programme. Our conversation, which had begun with a ‘may I see your book’, had drifted from literature to food. I was trying to describe Pakistani cuisine to her, and …

Custard Suitcase

O, look not upon me, upon how I curdle At the shrivelled bottleneck of my life;Lest the truth of my quaking at each hurdle Among the clinking teaspoons become rife! For I'm the old custard suitcase in the room Now pretending to be made of new leather;For I'm the wilting rose skulking in the gloom Muttering prayers for springlier …

The Not-Lily Flower

In the grey-streaked dawn I can barely gleanA deck of petals expertly dealt out in a ringA clingy little flower, prest into the railingOf the dew-drugged garden already the queen O rose with your luscious crimson promiseWoolly chrysanthemum, the garden’s adonisSweet blooming dahlia with your heart of goldCarnation. Bulbous fragrant hyacinth of old – Before …

Fleeced With Moss

A bleak pencil garden’s grey smiling face Bled in with a stencil’s fey laughing graceWill make a home of a stray unframed place Drape it all in familiar home-spun lace   Into the slate dish  Thrust each quotidian wraith  Forced into English These skins of slaughtered goats demand a voice For this shadow of their souls beg a …

The Answer Sheet

The smooth snickety grate of pencil-lead snagsIts way against the lines of the answer sheetFixing the margins as it slices across, dragsAll my words into the centre, square and neat. I fill it up with the many functions of bloodIn a blue-penned scrawl I double-circulate itThe words that stray outside I instantly scudTo the centre’s …

On Transcribing / Research Interviews //

squealing ellipses / have become // the secret lynch-pin /of something incredible / yearni- /// waiting to be known //as I hammer out / lies told with /// lies sheathed within /the truths / they tell me / with their ey- /// that are shown // now language / refuses sentences // and disperses /into …

Bone Chopsticks

Lightning bolt shot through with goldThen a heart worn on a chainA trailer of cotton stacked to be soldThen drenched in the summer rain A cold set of bone chopsticksFive. All alone, all uselessThe chill by the brake. The deer licksThey add up to my own Loch Ness A world of flies and sun-flecked earth-songOf …

The Harvest

“They will yield a fine harvest,” rustled Father Oak to Mother Maple. “Fur-less, they strip other animals; claw-less, they fashion stone claws, to hunt their prey and to slay one another!”“Abominations! Fratricides!” Mother Maple withdrew from the creatures, horrified. “Cast them out now, say I!”“Nonsense! We shall nourish them well, so that they may ripen …

Life

Ravaged forests again take rootLife nestling within the sturdy acorn Cannot be throttledAshes reborn yield bitter fruitFragrance scattered upon the winds Cannot be bottled [First published by The Society of Classical Poets]

Mirror of Truth

A chiliad of voices in one reeling head Atop a scarlet thistle-down scarecrowHail soul-silence with an eerie whistle Faltering into a vortex of its old echoAnd emerge as one blank incoherent cry Outside, the pouched-porridge thinkers Hollering 'This abyss is false and fissile'Look on through starkly glittering blinkers And sneer 'Grow a spine and knock it dead'The fittest only …

Don’t Forget

“Hello, my name is Sarah and I’m –” The swishy Rossetti girl gripped the chair and finished the sentence with a conscious heroism that made Naíla’s lips curl. “An Instagram addict!” “Hello, Sarah” chorused the circle, smiling, none more widely than Naíla. It was the kind of thing that got you bonus points with counsellors …

The Old and the New

What shall Lord and land and hall and bowerCastle and fen and glade and towerSay to a world of Facebook and iron birds?“Well, Google us to find the words!” [First published by The Society of Classical Poets]

The Orange Towel-Turban

“We are originally from Afghanistan, but I have never been there I grew up in Islamabad in Pakistan; officially, I belong here -”So we first meet, upon this Persian-carpeted threshold Of this Francilian ghost of our familiar drawing-roomsRight down to the embroidered velvet curtains that hold Their own weight in preposterously intricate blooms We talk in English; this …

Ash-Born Freedom

Raw soul wrung out from the squeezed dishcloth of the painBreaks me free of love-life-sorrow-wonder - even of the pain Strips off French, Urdu, English, Punjabi - leaves fragmentsOf language floating upon the rim of the blood and the pain One full-throated laugh in drizzling grey-dragon winter skiesWeights the soul-scales over knowledge, liberty, over even …

Nightsun Country

Shall all birds fly to roost in the gloamingEven those nestled of old in my heart?Those upon the sea in the high tide foamingWould they let night nest them apart? Come sleep, wash away travail and toilBear the grit of misery out to seaWring out the sands, let the waves uncoilThe star-mantle of night – …

Zastrugi

The snow fell in swift soft flakes, and the children rejoiced. When morning came the mountain-slopes would be frozen solid and they would be allowed to go skiing. The wind had other plans, however. All night it raked and tossed the snow, sculpting it into waves across which the dawn rippled red. The children raced …

Drapes and Dust

She fell out of the frayed brown paper, a short square woman in a sari, clutching a man’s suitcase with the broken handle crushed into her fist so that appearances were almost saved. The bleakness of the room leapt out of the tinted daguerreotype, as did the homely strength of her, the pixyish triangle of …

Maryam

When Maryam’s father brought home the mangoes that Sunday, her brother Zain leapt for the gold-and-silver ribbons in the shopping bag, and threw them at her as he always did.“Maryam ki Shadi!” He yelled, capering about her, on his toes to dodge the book or shoe or whatever missile came to her hand. She would …

Questions

I am watching water well up inside      The roof, and seep its way Through the walls, ...

Janam Janam Ki Bhook

The soul-starved hoard each blackened potatoLong past all need, while the still unruined fallOn crisp fries, scarfing down new shields to grow‘Gainst the demon that elsewhere devours all. Yeh jo janam janam ki bhook hai bhaiyaIss ko kab ja kar mitaye ga ruppaiya? Rakes out pounds of flesh with remorseless clawsHollows backs that know only …

Four Ugly Roses

Once upon a time there were four roses who lived in a little town-square garden. Each of them felt like the ugliest rose in the whole world. They argued about it all day long, and whenever someone came by, they would say: "tell us, tell us which one of us is the ugliest, please tell …

Opening Statement

I don’t want to join you, I want to listen. Not eavesdrop, precisely, just listen. From this distance, I don’t understand a word you are saying, and yes, that pleases me right well. It is the hum of your voices I need, because laughter and conversation mingle and become the same soft murmur everywhere. So …

Juliet and Her Romeo

‘Three whales do make a school,’ said Cidybaum. ‘We are Mysticetti, daughter. One of us is worth a dozen Odontoceti.’ ‘I prefer us to be “herd”, anyway,’ said Reldnahce, and Meirrow groaned. 'Not just seen. Perhaps then we would be spared, not speared. Or we could be a shiver?’ ‘We do not speak of sharks …

Y U Like Dis

"We do have one reservation," The voice, hitherto mellifluous behind the smile the 'still buffering' loopy arrow had blurred to a snarl, crispened suddenly, and I straightened up. "During a quick glance through your Facebook activity – standard company procedure, nothing personal – our psychoanalysts found a disturbing number of memes about drinking at work. …

Egg-And-Butter Sandwiches

Your cousin is boiling alphabet pasta for her children. “You used to tease your Mom to make egg-and-butter sandwich-stars? Remember?” “She always said it was a waste of bread.” Your cousin’s smile fades. When you wake up, you see a plate. With an egg-and-butter sandwich-star on it.

Not A Road-Kill

Plucked from your seat, tossed like a dollAwaken slumped against a wallNumbly whispering a prayer.xxxJust lie there.Breathe, breathe, breathe your fillxxxUntil –

Jouissance

La mer ronge le soleil couchant     Alors que je vous dévore,O mon beau gâteau, o mon croissantChéri. Pâtisserivore,     Je lance notre défi au ciel,Coudes plantés sur le sable. Une cicatrice dans la nuitL'auguste lune se dresse,     Outrée par nous. Le soleil s'enfuit ;Avec fougue et allégresseElle tire son ciel du néant     Pour un fol instant de gloire De son …

Vendetta

“I'll wedge between the digits and pinch the web. When he squirms, I'll blister him!”“That’s a bit extreme?”“He went for a run when he knew I was fraying. I ripped open, he went on running. Torn as I was” Sock gulped. “He hung me out to dry!”

Zoological Studies

They cannot run towards me, or away:     They can only flutter awhileAt the steel bars, then drop out of view.So I distribute glimmers of my smileTo all three bird-cage rows and say      ‘I want to write a poem about you’ The parrots hop and jibber ‘you! blue! clue!’     The macaws cackle their disdain;The peacock preens …

Wilderness

‘Angered seasons have ere now’, creak the bonesOf the old, ‘laid cities to waste. Now timeWill uproot from our earth the enraged stonesAnd heap them upon our heads’. But the grime Of their dreads leaves the young unmoved and sureIn changing with the changings of the freeWorld to find horizons broader and moreAlluring. This time's …

Minefield of Pain

My mémoire is a minefield of painEach word worms into my chafed fleshLike the trickling salt of summer sweat,The aftertaste of taunts laughed away Cette étude explore once againOases left unfed to the thresh;Ouvre again the gashes that letThe fell words m’effacer, m’écraser Foul acid-rain showers, they still sloughShield after shield from the memoryBound to …

Seven Is A Beautiful Number

‘I am here to haunt you,’ said the ghost. ‘Hello, ghost,’ said the little girl. ‘Welcome. Meet my other ghost-friends.’  ‘So you are haunted already,’ said the ghost ‘oh dear.’ ‘Why, what’s the matter? There’s always room for a new haunting,’ said the little girl. ‘Oh no,’ said the ghost. ‘I want to be someone’s …

Buy Me A Magic Mirror

“If Your Majesty alludes to Judges, I would say Shoe String, or perhaps Cold Pipes. If we speak of complexions, the snowman your step-daughter and her friends have built would appear to be – oh dear, the young ladies have had a falling-out, and our erstwhile pristine friend is much bespattered. If beauty be your …

Xanthodontous

‘Older people are quite likely to become xanthodontous even if they do brush their teeth.’ This observation, muffled by a phone-and-hair shield, left me a little nonplussed, until I realized it needed no response because it asked nothing of me, but was simply so many words shared, like waves of the pine air-freshener sprayed liberally …