Poem- Fragment VI (Symptomatic of Freezing nights and Snow-drifts)

Egon Schiele, Winter Trees

The trees stand naked and shivering against a pristine sky. She is lying on half-frozen grass, staring into a mesh of branches ruthlessly exposed. The leaves- or whatever is left of them- uncurl like ancient scrolls: thin, desiccated and easily torn. The air reeks of silence and untold secrets...

Her mind is a wilderness of memories planted long ago. Images of numerous faces known but not needed, hover in the air above like stubborn, cold-blooded flies. Time weighs heavily upon her. With each passing day, the dreary winter tightens its hold. And at night, past an early sunset, as darkness gathers its misty folds, she finds herself clinging desperately to sanity, like a dying man fiercely retaining, his last fugitive breath.

Zaina Anwar 2010

Poem- Fragment V

Love leads inevitably

to a burning tenderness

in the flesh of my heart where

mosquitoes breed and blood

circulates in strange,

infected whorls.

A vision of hell has leaked

through my tranquil dreams.

From the deep of the night sky,

black melancholy has descended

to rape the flesh

of my trembling soul.

Zaina Anwar 2010

Poem- Fragment IV

In quiet anonymity, the cactus

has overseen the whole affair.

Myriad thorns have pricked

hot words and deep sighs

into the early hours

of a gray, winter's morning.

The cactus is now meditating

upon human cruelty

and silvery snares.

Zaina Anwar 2010

Poem- Fragment III

The rose faint with fragrance

has slowly begun to wilt

in the chaotic quietude

of deep, starless nights.

Zaina Anwar 2010

Poem- Fragment II

Lorca, breathe your pain into me

so I can fly on the white wing

of your bittersweet song.

Zaina Anwar 2010

Poem- Fragment I

The sun refuses to shine today.

I am a blue moth incensed

in the shadow of viscous clouds.

Zaina Anwar 2010

Circles and Threads

A cushion I recently embroidered and stitched myself.