after Faiz, Sauda
come walk with me
by the lake’s empty benches
tell me, dressed in roses
that we need some air.
the wound’s head has reached the heart–
there’s no use in sewing it or rubbing it with balm.
all the lovers have snuffed their lamps,
headed back over the broken paths.
said Sauda in madness:
what has passed, has passed.
We lovers who court calamity
deserve it all.
Adeeba Shahid Talukder is a Pakistani-American poet and translator. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program, where she received her MFA in Creative Writing. She translates Urdu and Persian poetry, and brings elements of the Urdu and Persian poetic universe to her own work in English. Her poetry and translations have appeared in Glass, Stirring, Consequence Magazine, Washington Square Review, Santa Ana River Review, PBS Frontline, and the Huffington Post among others. Adeeba lives in New York City.
