Mona Arshi poetry

 
 

Let the Parts of the Flower Speak

i. pedicel

You think you have illumed me
because you have translated me?
Please read me variantly with
a green fevered mind.


ii. ovary

There’s nothing sharp in
this house. All my terrors
my crowded out babies,half/half-
trembling little faces of gold.
I have no other vision than this.


iii. filament

I have certain tendencies and these
tendencies may conflict with your
tendencies most certainly.


iv. petal/izaat/respect

what would a faithful
rendering have demanded?
Petal etiquette;
How does one bear it?
bharish/bimaree
This is my dharma
turning yellow after
initial growth.


v. stamen

The curse: almost certainly mis-
pronounced by a man.
Draw me faithfully-bitch, stable-witch
What does my ambiguity permit?


vi. style

I am not observant,
Why are you bringing
God into this?
And this my love
is going nowhere.


vii. sepal

My little bastard verses
tiny polyglot faces
how light you are
how virtually weightless.


viii. anther

Speak into me with your
mouth close to my
humming surface
beyond flower memory
piercing
leaf and loam
past rootlets
through the
aortic arch
glinting hearts of the
rosy-tipped worm.

 

A selection of Mona's poems