Category: Poetry
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a collection penned under a mask
pennames aren’t easy to keep up with and i have learnt that only recently. ever since i started writing on the internet and made my amateur works public, which was in September 2020, i have resorted to personas, trying to build some form of an image that would perfectly encapsulate…
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for afghan women
cradled in valleys of bitter pomegranates / where the fruit swells but never ripens / and poppies die before they bloom // faded blue shuttlecocks drift on dusty roads / tossed hither and thither / left to wither / ghosts silhouetted against an indifferent sky // cursed from the womb…
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the show goes on, pt.i
are you not entertained? // the trapdoor creaks beneath your feet / the spotlight overhead blinding in your wide eyes as if inside an interrogation room // cracking jokes for a crowd / long bored, long gone / the silence loud / as night turns to dawn // you keep…
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Light of all Lights
The night knowsof many tearsand the day knowsof many smilesyet the lionessstands her ground,the fair maidenwho never bows.Is there any flamethat can dance with hers?A bright lightthat has the eyes blur.She who walks on fire,she who dreamsamong stars,the lotus amidst ash. Wrote this for a friend ❤ Image not mine,…
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Mirror
malalai, you call your name outlike trying to find a robber at night.you quiver when you hear those syllables spoken, right or wrong.silence feels more innate than language—your lips move like it’s foreign.fear scratches like sandpaper on your tongue,a parched desert that knows nothing, noone.you carry a sickle for a…
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Red Swan
the sun shines crimson over the mountainsidelike the blood of slaughtered animals on akhtar,and i count the trees in the valley,burnt to ash like the grey in my mother’s hair.prayer slips into my tongue and out,the lips dry and bleeding,kneeling on the dying light,red like the poppies that die the…
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The Lemur and the White Mouse
I stare into the eyes of a lemur,pits of darkness, leadinginto the yellow rings of hell.A hunger haloes over, feedingon my will, the sight of furwhiter than the moon, my skincrawls, my eyes watching a death bell—a leaf breaks, the air rings,the eyes of the lemur splash in red,as it…
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Undying Poppies
Can you hear the poetssinging deepbeneath the earth,lulling the deadto an eternal sleep?Can you hear the childrenlaughing acrossthe Mediterranean sea,echoing the joysof a land that is free?Buried, uprooted, forgotten,but in faith they are begotten,for it is still spring on the other sideand the earth belongs to them only,and their voices…
malalai khan 