Registers of Illuminated Villages by Tarfia Faizullah

Author:Tarfia Faizullah [Faizullah, Tarfia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-55597-990-4
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Published: 2017-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

YOUR OWN PALM

O, my daughter, once I was a poor boy

folding peppers into my sarong

to walk three miles to sell, but what

can you tell me of sorrow,

or of the courage it takes to buy

a clock instead of a palmful

of rice to go with the goat

we can’t afford to slaughter?

Look at the lines Allah etched

on your own palm: you have

a big brain and a good heart,

still, you don’t use either enough!

Once, I walked through a war

beside my brother parallel

to a gray river. Why do you care

about the few damp bills

I didn’t give to our mother?

Or the clock I bought to take apart? Well,

I left that country with a palmful

of seeds I’ve thrown across

this dry, hard Texas. Allah

has blessed me with this vine

that coils upward. I care

so little for what others say, ask

your mother. That nose ring

doesn’t suit you, by the way.

Once, you were small enough

to cradle. There was a coil

in that clock made of metal…O,

that something so small can matter…

No, daughter, I

don’t need a glass of water. Look,

this will grow into maatir neeche aloo.

In the spring, you see, its purple leaves

will be the size of your own palm.

In the village, there is a saying:

“Dhuniya dhari, kochu pathar paani.”

I don’t know where the clock is

or how much it’s worth! There was

not enough for kerosene…why

do you always ask what can’t be answered?

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