Sheikha A.



Breakable Water

Befriending spirits is easier
to loneliness: reciting

the mind, the unmoving light
from door cracks; they offer

security in return for a house
in your body. Remember

playing with toys that caught
resistance in supple throats –

that made you believe
it was what you liked best?

You learnt a different kind of water:
what never stopped flowing

and tasted different.
You made new friends

easier to drowning. Spirits
know locks are not

meant for irrigating. They will
help take away your gift

you have been holding
by the tethers for too long.

Call them in to collect the ghost
of the man you can’t forget,

let them help turn you
into a coward fitting secrets

between sentences. But never
forget men armed with infants –

premature slices of water.




Sheikha A. is from Pakistan and United Arab Emirates. She has been published in various literary venues, both print and online, including several anthologies by different presses. Some of her poetry is forthcoming in The Seventh Quarry, Clockwise Cat, Cruel Garters, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, and some others. More about her can be found on sheikha82.wordpress.com.
 
 
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