Shahilla Shariff

Shahilla Shariff is the author of a collection of poetry, Life Lines (Proverse Hong Kong, 2012). Her poetry has been featured in various anthologies and journals, including most recently (2020) in Columbia Journal of Literature and Art, World Literature Today, Literary Review of Canada, American Writers Review’s Art in the Time of Covid-19 and (2021) in Voice and Verse Poetry Magazine (Issue 58, upcoming).

Shahilla Shariff is a Canadian living in Hong Kong.

 
Only A Few Words Are Left

long   ago                                               I   learned                                               Arabic

 
        only                                             a   few   words                           are   left

 
                 hawa                                            bahr                                    samar

 
            indolent                                                                           breeze

 
                              grainy                                           wild   figs

 
salt-studded     sand                                                  not-so-distant     sea

 
             evening’s                         blue-black                    tattoo

 
     crushed   pomegranates                                        a   bowl   of   roses

 
loosening at midnight                                      a   chipped   glass   pitcher

 
     half-filled                                      cold   kirkadeh                       carrying      night

 

Khamsa Five euros – the Senegalese woman on a beachfront slips a bracelet on me. Take my hand La vie est très dure ici she confides shimmying to the live band. Amulet mystery hand your five fingers point to a safety far from life’s intentions. Five for five khamsa for khamsa. Take my hand The music stops concrete retreats in the fury of rain. She is done bargaining the lady of trinkets and shipwrecks with her cargo of misplaced hands.

 
Poetry in this post: © Shahilla Shariff
Published with the permission of Shahilla Shariff