ʾištiqá:q 1
Hijras2
Black rags of grandmothers
saint napthalene of hallowed closets
the wood on the floor creaking
the little balcony on the verge of collapse, a spectre
the new owner
will coat with cement.
Black rags of grandmothers
wooly heat at midday
your scent like a quilt
and a cool breeze
you dampen my unfathomed night, the night that is of age
you scratch at my snakebodice.
— Please do not forget to name me I Return
I Give birth, a bare sweet homecoming!
in(to) your vagina I creep
I take on your form
and we start to
dance
Three widowed Graces
My male head, a freshly prepared treat
on the platter
we tear each other’s hair over who will tongue kiss it
Joy to your seven veils!
Luna de miel3
When father “passed on” — as they say —
I returned from the tropics myself.
And we left
with mum
on a honeymoon
forty-one days later.
The rooms-to-let would not contain
the orphaned one. It was still the beginning of
May. And the only customers
were retired women from the North.
All of them, accompanied by their husbands
who were still alive.
We left
We set off
We found ourselves in the middle of a flatland.
The three girls came
grandmothers made of earth
—with hair in plaits—
They uttered their predictions for our lives.
The whole world came
— very kind of you, stranger!
in the space of a hitchhiking sip.
We sang sunsets
That very evening, at the mobile home
I dreamt
of a sooty fireplace
myself, the wet wood at fault
and a Saint George-Dragon
jolting me.
(disposing of me) to sparks
I was reduced.
Since then, whenever and if
I see dad in my dream
he either smiles at me
or he embraces me,
Hram4
Little azure girl that twenty years afore
you were watering with milk your grandfather’s bedding, swishing grandchild
Barren you now sweat to saddle yourself with them, a tourist
childless
disowned
offspring
with money
of unknown origin self
creating. Glass-like skin longing to be scratched
Website: “Easter at the village”
(— Does Resurrection ever sound
in the hecatombs of the chests?
— For certain, daughter of mine, for certain)
The beddings that raised you, wares
you haggle over with foxes rabbit-sisters
bishops brothers scions and acquired
telesalesmen of the family house.
The years that corroded you, pixels
online pics and you grope around in the hope of finding
and (re)claiming with a credit card number
the mark of shame that bore you.
1. ištiqá:qشتقاق ¨
Arabic term for the word etymology. Literal meaning: breach, separation, rupture.
22. hijras: Hindi (हिजड़ा) and Urdu (ہِجڑا,) […] Southasian cultures […] male biological gender […] female social identity […] 20th century […] activist hijras […] Western NGOs […] official recognition […] third sex […] categories […] beyond […] Εtym. arabic root h–j–r : abandon, denounce, migrate.
3. luna de miel: […] Spanish […] honeymoon […] mensis […] month […]
4. hram: wool-cotton bedding […] Agiasos, Lesbos […] idiom […] Turkish ihram […] iḥrām إحرا arabic […] garment […] faithful to Islam […] psychological condition […] pilgrimage, hajjحج […] ḥarām حَرَام […] holy/sinful […] Etym. arab root h-r-m: holy/forbidden […] Modern Gr. χράμι (bedding), χαράμι (wasted attempt), χαραμίζω (squander), χαραμής (thief), χαρέμι (harem) […]
NICE! 