Black Chador
The women of Alexandria wear a chador that
mercifully hides her bony body, she could have
fitted a Dior dress snugly, but she doesn't
know this, she has walked ten miles to buy
bread for her children
She has been to the fruit market too, where
where rib-cage mules with sores stoically wait
A rich, elderly English woman tells the mule
As the owner of it, she has never felt the pang of hunger
Nevertheless, she puts bandages on a mule's
open sores
The woman in the black chador is oblivious of this
Empathy for suffering animals is
a concern of
the wealthy, those who have time to care
House hunting
I´m looking for a flat in a small market town nearby.
The lady showing me around ought to wear a chador.
One of the features in the flat is a new dishwasher
and other kitchen utensils of interest.
The flat has a balcony with a view of other houses,
not a tree in sight.
My almond tree is in full bloom make spring beautiful.
This town has shops, a post office and an elder centre
where we elderly can play bingo.
The landscape in my village is odd it used to be farmed
people moved away and left it to go back to the wilderness.
Today, I saw a fox, a rabbit and a boar, also a cow hanging about
chewing cud and lost in thoughts.
Flowers hide under a crippled tree and are beautiful for their own sake.
The chador-lady is right in a wrong way.
I will wait only move when spring and summer is over
when winter murk hangs in my vale and mist is like a childhood of sorrow
Then I will leave and wear a grey coat of elderliness
Mekhela chador
I was too hurry and overwhelmed
To embrace the attire
"mur maa rr mekhela chador" ( - "my mater's Indigenous Traditional Assamese Dress")...
The days in kindergarten,
I cherish the attire, in her wardrobe enhanced and ironed
The dining hours,
I often queried her, to own the attire
And in festive tyrant,
She dressed herself in the silken weaving attire
The onset of puberty;
My body and soul celebrated draping of the attire
From my breast to my waist to my ankle
For the first time, I engulfed the feeling of being a woman (and beautiful)
All coyness and tenderness are ornate as my fragrance
The attire was made of silk in creamy white and cherry thread
Like droplets of cherry-red blood unfurling the snowy linen
And the ears heard joyously whispering me
"mur maa rr mekhela chador" ( - "my mater's Indigenous Traditional Assamese Dress")...
Hijab
Hijab, niqab, jilbab, or chador of ridah.
Draping eloquently the notion of obscurity with expressions so holy.
Living an invisible existence on screen of life.
Suffering in silence; and protecting honor of riwayaat daily.
Should I surrender the will of life, being, self, or khudi?
Don’t show, just hide: don’t feel, but survive.
Don’t love just subsist in this infertile valley.
Don’t cry,
You are a daughter of a contemporary,
Traditional, man of Islam.
For you life hereafter is the prize.
To find yourself when everything is hidden in the ideals of hijab
Is a miracle of love
It’s life greatest surprise.
Saadia Syed
Such deep amber green eyes
Stare into me
Like arrows that so delicately pierce my heart
She is covered in a curtain of black woven cloth
Ah but her hair flows like caramel
She is concealed and wrapped, the camouflage of fear
The burka hiding the princess within
I may not see with my eyes
Oh but how my heart dreams
Of running in the meadows, laughter at our own happiness
Her voice is musical, and softly charms my soul
I am lost in illusions, of this woman in chador
She hides inside this blackness
Her heart protected by dragons
In the dragons lair so deep
I gaze intently into this darkness
I breathe the fire of rejection
I have no chance with this maiden of such beauty
You see
Her dress is blue like the summer breeze
Her hair blonde like the golden skies
She is the desire of many a suitor
As she sleeps in the drum tower
High above all of loves intentions
The bailey her only wanderings
As you see the only burka she ever wore
Was around her heart
Fluctuating Fortunes
There was a brutal dictator, a strong man, who ruled a unruly
country with a steel sword that dripped of menaces and blood.
For a while he was our ally when he fought a war with a country
we didn´t like; and we helped him with weapon and intelligence.
Yet there was another side to him, women were not oppressed
under his rule, they could dress as they liked and seek the highest
education. The Christian community too was accepted, and people
could walk out at night in peace; but he went too far, invaded
a country that was our friend. Well, we invaded and he was duly
hanged and few tears were shed. For the women the revolution
was a disaster, no longer can they go out without risk being shot for
not wearing a chador and the Christians were falling over themselves
to flee or risk being killed. That is the way of the world when there
is a upheaval the minorities and women have to pay the price.
Fluctuating Fortunes
There was a brutal dictator, a strong man, who ruled a unruly
country with a steel sword that dripped of menaces and blood.
For a while he was our ally when he fought a war with a country
we didn't like; and we helped him with weapon and intelligence.
Yet there was another side to him, women were not oppressed
under his rule, they could dress as they liked and seek the highest
education. The Christian community too was accepted, and people
could walk out at night in peace; but he went too far, invaded
a country that was our friend. Well, we invaded and he was duly
hanged and few tears were shed. For the women the revolution
was a disaster, no longer can they go out without risk being shot for
not wearing a chador and the Christians were falling over themselves
to flee or risk being killed. That is the way of the world when there
is a upheaval the minorities and women have to pay the price.
In the city of avatars
uncharitable names were cropping up
for wet and wild awards
scripted on lips of unreliable nights.
I wanted to quit archives
of headless soldiers and standing back
wanted to watch a river
of corpses flowing to morgue.
Another blast has killed a dozen
bystanders, who were shopping
for a white chador of peace
from blood-streaked owners.
Become a homosexual to catch up
the wave. Don’t tell,don’t give up.
The birthing of blue moon amidst white stars
will take place shortly
Satish Verma
Time zone had become acidic.
Wear the chador softly.
Moon is coming out.
Down rushing
stillness croons.
Someone is going to outwit the night.
A night bird weighs the wind.
Why do you stand alone ?
Desires will come relentlessly.
The essence of pain.
My bronze heart,
has no prodigious injury.
SATISH VERMA
Your eyes betray the
pain within your womanhood
to hide such beauty.
Time zone had become acidic.
Wear the chador softly.
Moon is coming out.
Down rushing
stillness croons.
Someone is going to outwit the night.
A night bird weighs the wind.
Why do you stand alone ?
Desires will come relentlessly.
The essence of pain.
My bronze heart,
has no prodigious injury.
SATISH VERMA
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