Poem
Ishrat Afreen
Ghazal
Ghazal
Ghazal
The bitter taste of hunger on cold lipsBlood-spitting, cracked, dry, yellow lips.
Broken bangle, icy girl, rebellious age
Green body, stony eyes, and blue lips.
Bare courtyard, lone woman, long years
Blank eyes, damp veil, moist lips.
Blue poison from bitter words grazes
Peels off these peeling lips.
Begging for poison, refusing honey dew
Rebellious, stubborn, wild willful lips.
Derelict thoughts, bitter words
Lovely, gentle, red, juicy lips.
What will they say to all this talk:
‘Girls, they say, must seal their lips.’
© 1991, Rukhsana Ahmad
From: We Sinful Women: Contemporary Urdu Feminist Poetry (with original Urdu poems)
Publisher: The Women’s Press Ltd, London
From: We Sinful Women: Contemporary Urdu Feminist Poetry (with original Urdu poems)
Publisher: The Women’s Press Ltd, London
Poems
Poems of Ishrat Afreen
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Ghazal
The bitter taste of hunger on cold lipsBlood-spitting, cracked, dry, yellow lips.
Broken bangle, icy girl, rebellious age
Green body, stony eyes, and blue lips.
Bare courtyard, lone woman, long years
Blank eyes, damp veil, moist lips.
Blue poison from bitter words grazes
Peels off these peeling lips.
Begging for poison, refusing honey dew
Rebellious, stubborn, wild willful lips.
Derelict thoughts, bitter words
Lovely, gentle, red, juicy lips.
What will they say to all this talk:
‘Girls, they say, must seal their lips.’
From: We Sinful Women: Contemporary Urdu Feminist Poetry (with original Urdu poems)
Ghazal
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