Barbican Young Poets 2019-20

We Are All Still Here and I Forget How to Say Alhamdulillah

Umma gets her license to drive to the moon. She’s never needed papers for that.

We go by a week without fruits and live. I hand in all my papers not kissed by

gaping holes in my sleep. My sister carries her teenage and pretends her face

doesn’t crumple easy. Spiders turn to deft tailors around our doors. Our flowers

stand naked in the garden. Zeba aces her first big exam and all she can think of is

the up, up, up of the lurching ride near the sea. Aches to lose her head to the wind.

Fadhil coughs up a fistful of weeds, says it’s straddling his lungs and I hmm and

hug as far as the internet carries it. That everyone here didn’t disappear is a fact.

Like orchids trapped in glass. I chip and chip away till I’m sure it’s real.

About Fathima Zahra

Fathima Zahra is an Indian poet based in Essex. She is a Roundhouse Poetry Collective alum and BBC 1Xtra Words First participant. Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in Khidr Zine, Tentacular Magazine and SLAM! You’re Gonna Wanna Hear This, her debut pamphlet is forthcoming with ignitionpress (Aug 21’).

Website: www.tinyletter.com/Fzahra97