Two poems by Razia Sultana Khan
Photo of Five Year Old Girl in Hijab
Enshrouded in white,bound head and body
you sit on a prayer mat.
No arms, no legs,
Invisible
a white lily
in the Snow Queen's land. Your eyes
Trapped
like the moon
in a well.
Mother and Child
Little cells in a beehivethe slum desperately teeters to the slant. Our train grumbles past a hut,
built on the fill. Shards and shingles
anchor the blue plastic sheeting, a roof. The loose ends
shudder as the train runs, past a young woman
her child clinging on her hip's crook. She flings a soiled katha made of old saris
onto the roof for the sun to cleanse. Another sunny day.
She takes a deep breath, folds herself in half, enters the darkness
her back to the passing train.
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