"Look, I Found Two Zebras" by Daria Duffy
Photography
Letters Never Sent by Aliyyah Zaidi
Poetry
i.
The ghosts of laughter
Pressed between pages
Like dead roses.
Taxidermied smiles
Stuffed and mounted on the walls
Bright eyes gone cold and lifeless.
Fossils of tender hearts
Bleeding together in fleeting moments
Stony reminders of what we were
And all that we failed to be.
I’m sorry we were never friends.
ii.
I watched you, brown girl
Studied you like Galileo to his stars.
I mapped your eyes like constellations
And drew your soul like the sun.
I loved you, brown girl
So I stabbed you till you bled
And as you gurgled your final lament
I stole the crown off your head.
But tell me, brown girl
Even when you ruled the world
Did you feel empty too?
iii.
Aadha doodh
Aadha paanee
Aur ek
Chai kee pati
(Half milk
Half water
And one
Chai bag)
I watch it boil
In the microwave
(Which isn’t really
The Desi way
But nothing here is)
The heat increases
As the flames of Hell
Tickle at the mug
The chai rises
Throbbing with
Postpartum pains
Milky tears of
Sweat and blood
Pour down the edges
Pooling on the
Microwave floor
I know you lie
When you say you
Don’t cry at night
While you drink your chai
But when I ask
What’s wrong
You say you’ll
Tell your woes
To God instead
iv.
This is to me,
Eighty year old me:
Promise me that
The skies aren’t clear
But you learned to laugh
In the thundering rain,
Promise me that
Your skin is wrinkled
From years of smiles
And your heart is weak
Because it loved too much,
Promise me that
I will grow into myself
Sprout like a tree
Fill every inch of my body
Become the woman
I once needed -
And I promise that
I won’t give up on you.
The ghosts of laughter
Pressed between pages
Like dead roses.
Taxidermied smiles
Stuffed and mounted on the walls
Bright eyes gone cold and lifeless.
Fossils of tender hearts
Bleeding together in fleeting moments
Stony reminders of what we were
And all that we failed to be.
I’m sorry we were never friends.
ii.
I watched you, brown girl
Studied you like Galileo to his stars.
I mapped your eyes like constellations
And drew your soul like the sun.
I loved you, brown girl
So I stabbed you till you bled
And as you gurgled your final lament
I stole the crown off your head.
But tell me, brown girl
Even when you ruled the world
Did you feel empty too?
iii.
Aadha doodh
Aadha paanee
Aur ek
Chai kee pati
(Half milk
Half water
And one
Chai bag)
I watch it boil
In the microwave
(Which isn’t really
The Desi way
But nothing here is)
The heat increases
As the flames of Hell
Tickle at the mug
The chai rises
Throbbing with
Postpartum pains
Milky tears of
Sweat and blood
Pour down the edges
Pooling on the
Microwave floor
I know you lie
When you say you
Don’t cry at night
While you drink your chai
But when I ask
What’s wrong
You say you’ll
Tell your woes
To God instead
iv.
This is to me,
Eighty year old me:
Promise me that
The skies aren’t clear
But you learned to laugh
In the thundering rain,
Promise me that
Your skin is wrinkled
From years of smiles
And your heart is weak
Because it loved too much,
Promise me that
I will grow into myself
Sprout like a tree
Fill every inch of my body
Become the woman
I once needed -
And I promise that
I won’t give up on you.