A Poem by Naush Sabah

Lentic

The floodwater                 shows us                            which drains

we                                     neglected                           before the rains

*

In summer                         when the lake                    subsides

we glimpse                        the pre-Partition               shrines.

*

Where both sides              of the bridge                     can’t meet

lake sediment                    eludes                                concrete.

*

Split by                              two houses                        both your own

you wake elsewhere        and long                            for home.

*

It’s earth                            and water                          that decide

what to wash                    clean                                 what to hide.

*

Sixty years                        submerged                        in a lake

our histories                     remain                               opaque. 

*

Each three-month           visit                                   will confirm

you can                             go back                             but can’t return.

*

My language died          by my                                own tongue.

English floods                 my children’s                   lungs.

*

Still waters                       look upon                         our homes

as empty                           storeyed                            catacombs.

*

In time                              the child                            who was confined

imprisons                         the adult                           within her mind.

*

We cast                             our coins                           into the pool
to watch                           our secret                          hopes unspool.

*

Naush Sabah’s debut pamphlet, Litanies (Guillemot Press, 2021), was shortlisted for the Michael Marks Poetry Award in 2022. Her new pamphlet, Lentic, is forthcoming with the same press in July.