Flashbacks Still Breathe by Hafsa Mumtaz

[tabby title="Poem"] the Quranic calligraphy in glitter, fringed by corkscrew seashells –redolent of Karachi, still hangs above the headboard in my room; the warm aroma of desi ghee on parathas, the tea, and fried eggs –breakfasts at dawn after a...

Sadism-Infested by Hafsa Mumtaz

[tabby title="Poem"] tinker with a spark of lucifer insideslithering as a cigarette's smokea sadist heart lies drunk in rapturea denying soul bleeds mercilesslyenchanting touch of a demon feelslike an alchemist's gilding wandif red is love so is blood a dazingwilderness...

Eclipse by Hafsa Mumtaz

[tabby title="Poem"] the reverberance of my thoughts grows frommoribund ebon to sanguine tides in my veins toashen grey of meaninglessness of life toclamping teal blue of monachopsis & chaos toblinding white of nothingness & numbnesswords blur & quiver like the...

Pneuma by Hafsa Mumtaz

[tabby title="Poem"] malaise – disconcerted lizard's tail in lacerationfaceless white walls – a blank sheet of paper –sibilance, obscuring sounds, kenopsiacomposure – petrified heart thundering & wispingacrasia – a spray of blood that quenches the thirst –sonder, anechoic heart, madnesssolitude...

Hiraeth by Hafsa Mumtaz

[tabby title="Poem"] walls carved out of skin, cemented with fleshhydrated with blood & lodged with a soul tosaunter about and search for the meaning ofits ikigai in the arcane lexicon of physicalitysenescence is the only wisp of life's fragrancethe pneuma...