Hashmi

 

Alamgir Hashmi

FEST


of course we broke

the wishbone together

grip tighter with each twist

hands in the feel

of breaking even

plus thumb joint pressure

and feathers plucked

one after another and another

until endings of alphabet

her blue grass skirt rustling

in wicked sea wind

so we touch off the surface

light, sail easy

mix food with prayer

though we’ve gone

our own ways since

I holding up my end

of what looks like a stick

(no no no I have no

bone to pick

with anybody anything)

without knowing why

after such a fine meal

we made of it all

with cranberry sauce

at each port of call

on our this-world tour

up here or down under

swift bow and stern waves

hardly a tossup

but nothing to hear in the wake

oh the afterlife

of the poor wild goose

stuffed then

and done with smoothly

along three saints

and still every year

she texts me

happy thanksgiving

 

 

Alamgir Hashmi is a widely published poet, critic, and professor of literature. His recent work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, New Quarterly, Poetry International, Paris Voices, and Connecticut Review. He is Founding President of The Literature Podium, An Independent Society for Literature and the Arts.