From Behind the Veil
“O Prophet! Tell thy wives and thy daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks close around them … so they be recognized and not annoyed.” (Koran 33:59) “And when ye ask of them anything, ask it of them from behind a curtain.” (Koran 33:53)
O
Prophet
Tell your Master
When I am Lost
In the Darkness I am consumed
By concentration not to lose
Colors.
Uninterrupted blue ocean sky
A childhood memory
An invention of the imagination
Swirling water with words
I doubt the dance
Men take for granted
Thoughtlessly
Stereotype of submission.
The curtain closed between women
And the world together.
Together we will measure our separate roles
Mourn our losses.
I watch the cobblestone street
Through the wooden trellis.
A multi-faceted vision carved for my modesty.
The window box full of blood poppies, kind daisies.
Such blooms belong in unruly valleys,
Accidental beauty.
To see a flower uninterrupted
I have to pluck it.
about the author