Hiraeth by Hafsa Mumtaz

walls carved out of skin, cemented with flesh
hydrated with blood & lodged with a soul to
saunter about and search for the meaning of
its ikigai in the arcane lexicon of physicality
senescence is the only wisp of life’s fragrance
the pneuma is a rathe lilac in the wild woods
of thoughts sometimes pliable as plasticine
sometimes firm as the joints in your cranium
the lunate eyes are the wings of that lilac
the countenance is the hue and shade of it
the rosette in the mouth is its apt advocate
transcending this physicality is the dream of
a hermit that twinkles inside the clayen attire
a mannequin of materialism is this drapery
of decay fated to shrivel and swivel into dust
mana is in the fancy, in what lingers beyond
the body is a jar of fireflies, a sky lantern robe
soul – a spark, a flame, a fire, a conflagration
soul is the pinnacle of thought jitterbugging
and kindling a luminaria in brain’s folds so it
glisters with intellect’s opalescence like a
coal-clad cave in the crippling carbon night

Hafsa Mumtaz, aged 22, is an emerging Muslim poet from Pakistan, and a graduate of English Language and Literature. Her poetry has been published in Visual Verse, The Rising Phoenix Review, Women’s Spiritual Poetry, The New Verse News, Poetry Potion, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Terror House Magazine, Ravi Magazine, and has appeared or is forthcoming in Couplet Poetry.