Hushed Husks

By Sufia Khatoon

Disentangle the husks from the corn
one by one –
be meticulous
think of the times you felt

a l o n e

and found the following indigestion of thoughts

gripping your ‘immunity’.

Tawajo do tumhari kaufzada kehfiyaat ko

Ke na hojaye zayaa zindagi iski kashmakash mein

I feel the impulse of life leaving my body –
first the heart
then the shadow of love from the nucleus of the skin peeling the husks.

Sometimes I see the corn kernels adamantly holding on to their roots.
Stubborn enough not to let go of the belief in ‘togetherness’.

I break them
saturate them
roast them
toast them

in a syrupy texture that at times challenges the mouth –

burns it and betrays it
until numbness from unreasonable conflicts restrain the body and
you feel devoid of ‘tasting’
the feelings of hushed voices.

Bio:
Sufia Khatoon, an author, a performance poet and artist based in Kolkata, India, is the recipient of the Kavi Salam Award 2018. Her poems and short stories have been published in various national and international anthologies of repute. She is a multi-lingual poet and Death In The Holy Month is her debut book of poems. She is the co-founder of the Rhythm Divine Poets community in Kolkata. Her Bengali poem “Ami Bolli Tumi Sunno” got featured in the Tollywood movie Antor Shotta. She has performed and participated as a delegate and poet at the Yuva Sahiti Young Writers Meet in the Festival of Letters of Sahitya Akademi 2019, Avishkar Young Writer’s Festival Dibrugrh 2019 by Sahitya Academy, Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2019 and Ethos Literary Festival Kolkata 2018. She has judged the IIT Kharagpur Spring Fest Slam poetry 2018 Kolkata Prelims round among many other competitions. She has also received the Amio Santa Award 2017 for her social efforts.

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