Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Moniza Alvi

from ‘At the Time of Partition’

from ‘At the Time of Partition’

from ‘At the Time of Partition’

Part 3: Better By Far


By bus?

Better by far a magic carpet,
finely knotted, richer

than blood, broad enough
to keep the family together,

islanded, apart
from every danger,

journeying swiftly
across the unsegmented sky –

not in the cauldron of summer,
but in the fresher feel

of the last of winter,
the lucid mornings,

the greeny tinge
of the evening air,

Nehru to wave them on
and Jinnah to welcome them –

my grandmother, her pots and pans,
her lamp close by,

her parcels of layered clothes,
like mattresses,

Ahmed and Athar jostling for space,
Rahila, Jamila, Shehana,

the ‘little’ sisters,
a conspiracy of three,

with names, like mine
all ending in ‘a’, young girls,

cross-legged, daydreaming,
disentangling hello from goodbye.
Close

from ‘At the Time of Partition’

Part 3: Better By Far


By bus?

Better by far a magic carpet,
finely knotted, richer

than blood, broad enough
to keep the family together,

islanded, apart
from every danger,

journeying swiftly
across the unsegmented sky –

not in the cauldron of summer,
but in the fresher feel

of the last of winter,
the lucid mornings,

the greeny tinge
of the evening air,

Nehru to wave them on
and Jinnah to welcome them –

my grandmother, her pots and pans,
her lamp close by,

her parcels of layered clothes,
like mattresses,

Ahmed and Athar jostling for space,
Rahila, Jamila, Shehana,

the ‘little’ sisters,
a conspiracy of three,

with names, like mine
all ending in ‘a’, young girls,

cross-legged, daydreaming,
disentangling hello from goodbye.

from ‘At the Time of Partition’

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