Farida Haque — acrylic and gold leaf on canvas

Creature of the Epiglottis

~I must spit it out~

I can no longer be poet of pretty-pretty

Of ebony lovers

Anemone breasts

Sinew and toil

Porcelain, cinnabar and gilt.

Shadows cast by purpled indigo

Lust, frescoes and Egyptian herons

Solitude that is a luxury

Red mesas porphyry obelisks

Saffron dust raised by a sunset

The moon, my moon beloved moon!

It’s not that I want to forget myself.

On the contrary —

Creature of the epiglottis,

I spit you out!

Terror murder hate and guns

Outrage despair, mosques synagogues

Holy water on bloodied limbs

Crosses crescents and prayer rugs —

All drowned in blackest of black.

That is what I reclaim today,

The other god I so easily forgot,

Lord of mad that masquerades as muse.

Farida Haque

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