Poem
Mona Arshi
Phone Call on a Train Journey
Phone Call on a Train Journey
Phone Call on a Train Journey
The smallest human bone in the earweighs no more than a grain of rice.
She keeps thinking it means something
but probably is nothing.
Something’s lost, she craves it
hunting in pockets, sleeves,
checks the eyelets in fabric.
Could you confirm you were his sister?
When they pass her his rimless glasses,
they’re tucked into a padded sleeve;
several signatures later,
his rucksack is in her hands
(without the perishables),
lighter than she had imagined.
© 2015, Mona Arshi
From: Small Hands
Publisher: Liverpool University Press, Liverpool
From: Small Hands
Publisher: Liverpool University Press, Liverpool
Mona Arshi
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1970)
Mona Arshi began writing poetry in 2008, after working as a human rights lawyer for Liberty, on high profile judicial review cases. She has spoken of how poetry for her is ‘the polar opposite of writing in a rule-bound legal discourse. Writing poetry involves forging space for creative accidents to emerge. Suspending intentionality means one submits to not knowing where poetry comes from, break...
Poems
Poems of Mona Arshi
Close
Phone Call on a Train Journey
The smallest human bone in the earweighs no more than a grain of rice.
She keeps thinking it means something
but probably is nothing.
Something’s lost, she craves it
hunting in pockets, sleeves,
checks the eyelets in fabric.
Could you confirm you were his sister?
When they pass her his rimless glasses,
they’re tucked into a padded sleeve;
several signatures later,
his rucksack is in her hands
(without the perishables),
lighter than she had imagined.
From: Small Hands
Phone Call on a Train Journey
Sponsors
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère