Two poems by Sufia Khatoon

Ad Infinitum

Add ad infinitum to your name

repeat after me – 

to search the emptiness is endless

To remain forever you must

reshape the cosmic stars

black and hollow.

Do you know the last remaining cell

will lose track of the conscious mind? 

What then my friend? 

Memory too dies old

in recorded symphonies.

Somewhere in the land of the lost

one tongue calls my name.

Have you seen ad infinitum?

Some say it’s eternal

some say it’s a name.

Window to the West

From the window 

the one that opens to an ancient wall

flew in haste and fright

the pigeon – 

the skylight of my soul.

Purple feathers and ruby eyes

lurked inside the fluorescent lights

for hours looking for an escape

outside the window the cat waited.

It looked eye to eye, soul to soul 

I felt its pain and I prayed.

I was quiet and comforted by its sheer perplexity

each day, a war of existence 

I looked around the dark room

where the call of azaan hummed me to wakefulness. 

It knocked on the mirror holding the reflection of the window

again and again desperate to take to the sky.

But each time it overlooked the window to the west

the one that led to her home.

The path is the answer to everything 

we have been searching for and 

everything we tried to understand 

without understanding anything.

Receiver of The Kavi Salam Award 2018, Sufia Khatoon is a multi-lingual performance poet, editor, translator and artist based in Kolkata, India. Her poems and short stories have been published in various national and international anthologies of repute. “Death in the Holy Month” is her debut book of poems. Sufia Khatoon is the Co-Founder of Rhythm Divine Poets community, Kolkata. She has performed and participated as a Delegate and Poet at Yuva Sahiti Young Writers Meet in The Festival of Letters of Sahitya Akademi 2019,Avishkar Young Writers Festival, Dibrugarh Assam 2019 by Sahitya Akademi, Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2019-20 and Ethos Literary Festival Kolkata  2018-19 respectively. She is a PR,Media and Event curator by profession. Sufia Khatoon has an MA in English Literature, a PG in Journalism and Mass Communication and a Diploma in Visual Arts and Design.