readers submission
I loved you because I did
So go in peace, be free, be kind.
8 June 2025
A sacrifice
When he was handing over the money to Naimuddin, their father, Kalam silently cried, holding Dholi’s neck in the yard.
7 June 2025
Tupperware cake
1 and 3/4 cups of sugar, 2 cups of i-love-you
24 January 2025
Will you remember me?
When moon fades into dawn and when I pass away with it / Will you think of all that I was?
24 January 2025
The Doppelgänger
It was actually a bit of a relief to sit on the terrace of the Gezira Pension and have a quiet breakfast before plunging back once more into the traffic of Cairo in search of a carriage to the museum.
17 January 2025
My heart's longevity comes from my maa's magnifying kindness
Maa, you are an endless exhibition / of sweet-sour happiness
26 September 2024
City of bougainvillea
“The roads are too clean. The sun is too bright,” she thought.
13 September 2024
Shadhin
Sumedha replied with annoyance, "I will make him say the words. It's so simple, 'Apni kemon achhen, bhalo?' Why can't he say it?"
11 September 2024
Anger and other blessings
A walkway through the crystal-clear lies
22 August 2024
Prayers of a mother for the sons and daughters on the street
justice—where is justice?
18 July 2024
Rebel is a letter in red
Where voices unite, a chorus strong, / Demanding justice, righting wrong
17 July 2024
Raw Magnolias
This is a garden, these are my petals; this is my armoring plant
7 June 2024
I've seen love
I've seen love/ Rolling down from a mother's eyes/ As she picks her lean child, bathed in innocent blood
1 June 2024
A means to an end
go further than/ what the hills have seen/ through their ice pick scars
30 May 2024
Saree
The yard in this noontime is buzzing with/ The white aroma of the guava flower
27 April 2024
Cyan is my name when I talk about you
I'm tired of living with this nagging thought that we'll cross paths someday, /You and I
20 April 2024
A Desire or death eats away at my corpse. You are basking in the sun
Do you want my hands / Will they be enough to keep you warm
4 April 2024
Sleepy ghost flight
You have made ice out of my heart;/ we were once nothing–you brutalise me
21 March 2024
The smell
“Stop mocking me, Atif! I am telling you there is something here.”
20 March 2024
To the Newton of Gaza
Words were never my greatest strength/ But the arsonist's child will read them
20 March 2024