Shadi Eskandani

This is a free-write that was inspired by some records displayed on the wall of a cafe. The words I used were taken from album titles. Half Confession Honeysuckle breeze, outerview of city lights: a masked marauder’s metamorphosis. Missing you, this time for real. Fidelity high i drink undisputed truth, turn left — a heavyweight in…

A poem by Charmayne D’Souza. When God First Made A Whore When God first made a whore, He took the howl of the wolf, the flexibility of the politician’s law, and the smoothness of the guillotine’s saw. Said the Almighty Lord: ‘Men, I have given you the Almighty Broad.’ She said — ‘Look after me…

Writing the City – Heard the bass ride out like an ancient mating call/I can’t take it y’all, I can feel the city breathing (Black Star) I finally fell in love with this city. It took 10 years for it to happen, for me to appreciate this terrain for what it is, its callousness, its…

Waning Crescent Your fingers stitch my slit skin while I writhe for the curve of your spine spin into your rotation. Torn. Deformed. Topography conquered I am a shadow of self, hopeless satellite waning in distance, wanting you here. In this synchronous absence I scythe myself asking you to piece me together, as you do…

Contusions i. Spine twists into pomegranate streets no words for deformed faces, desecrated bodies not yet covered in white. Hope drips from tips of fingers moulding home in the glitter of rooftop cries to god in a dua blown into jasmine wind in a bullet blasting inside a woman’s chest. Hope drips in battered limbs…

Homecoming (40 days of mourning) Sun blisters flesh saffron. Lips to cracked soil, she scrapes across salted earth grates you into her skin. Desert in her bones barefoot lineage. Love. The day the wind took her you walked with open palms scorched feet through sand, sifting her song. A dua for the dust, prayer for…

Burning Amber We’ve walked hard together. Tripped all over each other and kept on walking. But how much longer will we walk this way? I love you like cardamom in cracks of concrete. Like dry earth. You love hard like I do. Maybe that’s our flaw. Because we don’t seem to get it right. I…

Solar Wind i smelled the sun’s scent — fennel, sweet — her fierce face-melt heat singing layers of rot inside me as million degrees dissolved bitter bones into surahs, burned kisses on my neck,   eyelids,   hands the hottest gust stream promised cinnamon dust, whispering your name moving me to molasses

When breathe light you me promise saffron prayers paper pieces pendant safe keep touch turquoise inside gentle open hands offer water offer seed offer love offer love offer breath breathe light you me promise.

Sometime Past Midnight her fingers fold paper into tiny squares with prayers inside for everyone else herself last always carries theirs unto hers until weight crushes brittle spine and she too folds into pieces cnn bbc cbc cp24 online offline crooked line broken line broken what will it take to piece yourself together in this very moment?