Thursday, March 28Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Letter from Farishta

05/01/05, Barki

From Farishta  

                                                   

between the wheat countries

somewhere

hunched like those women who chew beedis – we listened – unbathed unshat to our rusks

and watched thatches of earth 

become our new home

I thought of when we played shuttle once

you sang

you wouldn’t shut up

that song from Umrao Jaan your dada sings with his snake hookah around his neck 

didn’t I say

something like I will never marry

that I wished to be those bikers we saw while picking our marigolds

riding to Leh from the south like they meant to burgle the Himalayas – 

I bit Asif when he rode me for the first time

last night

I feared he will find my letter and – 

if this reaches 

you better not write back a poem