Ode to a Beautiful Eid

This year, Eid felt similar- yet somehow very different. The old traditions were there but after spending two years in lockdown, this Eid felt renewed. Here is an artwork illustrated by Tahsin Mostofa Chowdhury on behalf of the team on The Interlude, and a poem by yours truly, both dedicated to the Eid that felt…

The Drowning White Knight

I face the crashing waves and tread even with the pain,But what’s the use if I drown?Do I deserve the torments that I carry like a cloud?I’m tired of being a lifeboat for your sinking ship.You never bothered to ask if I could swim,Or if I had a life jacket strapped on,You kept holding your…

Untitled Document (7)

Thank you for gracing us with your presence tonight!This was an experiment of a lifetime, you see.Our multi millennia project would lead us to humanity, we believed,And here we stand tonight in front of all the Heavens,As every bit of despair subtracted one gather togetherInto a black hole, ceasing to exist. All the wars we…

Winter Blues

I know who I am in the winter;I am just a girl,hardly old enough to die,but old enough to barely live.While the cold air creeps upupon me,upon you,it sends shivers down my spine.I think of you in the cold,I think of winter,I think of that winter.The winter I know is now approaching.As it gets closer,…

The Darkest Hour

[Midnight shakes the memoryAs a madman shakes a dead geranium.– T.S. Eliot, Rhapsody on a Windy Night] The second hand of the clockkept turning until itmet both the other hands at the top. Midnight.The memoriesstill haunted me.“Has it already been that long?”I asked, staring at the clock.Why I was talking to a clockI did not…

A Bipolar Date

I have at least 300 faces,and most of them are ugly.My ugly faces take different forms;some high and some low.On the high days, I feel free.But there’s a burning sensation in my chestand ringing sounds in my head,that make me lose myself and cause meto burst out profanities at times,and set things (and people, even…

Amour Fictif

I found myself in the bookstoreagain on a Friday,reading about you and I,feeling the timelines sway.You had no recollectionof my existence and yet,we shared a love story that’sincontestable I bet. I found myself in the bookstorelooking for the manwho yearned to exploreas much as he can;I flipped the pages with lust,addicted to your soul.Your failures…

The Voice in My Head

I am who you are,Gemini, do you hear me?Paradoxical. Paradoxical.Our stars hang in pairs, you see?You belong with me. You belong with me,I’m in search of completion;I want to be whole. I want to be whole.Why am I isolated?I want to love you. I want to love you.I sought you the way kings did;brave, bold,…

An Epiphany and the Muse

Throbbing,my heart throbbingof isolation,of desolation,and of blues.The blues frequently took me to places;places I kept wishing to linger on for more thanjust a moment.Meanwhile, souls; happy yet unhappy soulstreaded my cosmos explicitly,offering me meaningless prevarications.Never would I have guessedthe imminent terrifyingly beautiful tideyou were bringing with youwhile you swam towards the shorefull of blues.A moment…

Her words in their worlds

She wore black But she had the most colorful mind She was a love poem written an hour before midnight in the darkness of the hour when sleep was far away but not too far away. They took away the light that resided inside of her and left her only with her words of melancholy…

This is not a Love Poem

Dreams have the power to heal,  Whether they evoke love, freedom, fear, or guilt.  But the sour dose of reality wrecks the sack,  Which then lay scattered on a dark, dreary cliff.  The beauty in pain  Is that somewhere hidden, there is a revival of joy.  And when the storm comes back,  With the blackest clouds, the fiercest waves,…

Hidden Under The Moonlight

I could see you Hidden under the moonlight Yet so blazing, and blinding, And transcendentally bright. You walk past me With that carefree vibe, Casting light to my world How could I be so naïve To have fallen for you when You’re betrothed to a darkness inside? You’ve left my heart and soul in a…

Your Smile

Your smile; I tried to picture it When you weren’t around To show off your white perfectly aligned teeth. I do not fail, oh no; You come in my dreams every day, I have come to memorize it I have a sharp memory anyway. Maybe someday We’ll lock our orbs in a pastel trance. My…