Mashaal Sajid
A Resignation
from inside a moss chapel
under the corpuscular dome
of this dream heavy rotunda
your eye spies a brass filigree
surma-dani, beautiful things
holding kohl and a promise
that this weary affair
might yet have something
to offer, for your suffering
perhaps a final golden afternoon
when chromatic smoke blends
our primordial shriek
with the turquoise horizon
and we could relish
in the obtuse understanding
of our bespoke truths
Sanobar
I will have
cypress arms
lilium plumed
mesh masks
& a soft body
in chrisom, coriander excitare
stranger a lighthouse
sanobar's mottled moss gray
efface the bulwark
ponderosa pine
the sphere, cone and cylinder
draw water from bone
drink from stone
mister magistrate
hemlock please
A Starling’s Beat
A murmuration of starlings
in tandem, an afflicted flock
bears enmities in flesh & limb
Rightly so in dorsal bump &
skin of black gods turned blue
Silver poisoned myths &
gobbledygook, we flap our
wings to coax out hidden desire
for cinnamon bodies, ripening
figs & cymbidium orchids in
bloom between skin-folds
wild bushes & dark trails
meandering every which way
inviting to unravel the mystery
of shadowed crevice & alcove
While our thunders whisper
filtered passions to white
drumheads duly vibrating
Folie is a fugitive taking shelter
in our turbulent, volatile frames
that may err any moment &
require abrupt reinforcements
of civility, savages who eat
with their hands, whose r’s
keep unrolling and rolling into
documents for proof of identity
The determination of legality
& a rightful claim to humanity
Too much ape, Too little man
I’m told the curry tree back home
has betrayed me, Jasmine ittar
& star anise all scream of terror
down the blue man’s barrel
Birds of a feather together now
a deafening beat
soars through the sky
Mashaal Sajid: “I am a female Poet from Pakistan, my work has been published and is forthcoming in The Tule Review, RIC Journal, Girls Right The World Journal, Papeachu Review, Siyaah Qalam Akhbar, The Desi Collective, Formidable Women Sanctuary, Body Language Zine and a few anthologies.”
