I love food. Its the only thing I can unabashedly say that four lettered word to without any hesitation or afterthought. I love it. I love how its made, tastes, looks, smells, feels and all the other itty bitty wordless feelings of absolute joy associated with it. It is exquisite. It excites me. It thrills …
By Hiba Rasheed She knows… Three months old Eyes speak of untold feats Conceived one month early Sep 11 My neophyte revolutionary Her torrential presence rains On the arid terrains of my soul, Each drop, a caress To coax lushness within my life Found and lost- too many times- In my carnal shroud and clouds …
Half her face was paralyzed in a blinding joy the other half in a crushing sorrow that started from within her shattered iris that left a trail of fissures along her jawline down to her collar bone that flowered into a Byzantine design across her chest that reached till her soles so she grew anchors …
I ran into an angel More like she ran into me didn’t even reach my knees, face, hands clothes caked with dirt A street baby Hugging my legs she looks up to my face Baby teeth Baby hair Baby face And she squealed ‘give me’ I squatted to my knees In the middle of the …
Am at a standstill. News after shitty news keeps assailing my ears & eyes but like any good fairytale I wanted to be able to write a story where even when things looked bleak, there was that fatigued happy ending. The ‘And this is why we should continue to hope & believe in…’. I wanted …
First featured in Muftah on Aug 27, 2012 I’ve been washing dishes. Lots of dishes. It is my oasis from the hustle, the bustle and the noise. And if there are no dirty dishes? I wash what’s in the dishwasher. None in there either? Well, I’ll purposefully find something dirty about those dishes in the cabinets. …
Originally Posted on Muftah.Org on Aug 15, 2012 | http://muftah.org/a-sudanese-summer-the-sudan-revolts-one-month-on/3/ Artist: Khaled Albaih. All rights reserved. On the evening of June 16, 2012, female students living in the University of Khartoum dormitories demonstrated against increasing accommodation costs and the government’s general price hikes. Unable to afford a basic meal or bus fare, they took to the …
We all remember our first days of fasting; the look of pride and elation at finally being able to partake in this very grown up thing, smugly refusing any juice-boxes with a ‘Not today… I am fasting thank you very much!’. Some fasted with great enthusiasm, while I cheated… every chance I got. No one …
I’ve been going through a technicolor brouhaha of emotions. We’re all experiencing these stages; first it was weightless elation, then suffocating worry, and now… doubt. You know that heavy doubt, like that Meryl Streep ‘Doubt’ that f’s with your head, putting cracks on your so called ‘sound judgement’. This doubt is all encompassing; whether #SudanRevolts will …
Something awe inspiring is happening right now, right at this very moment in Sudan, as I type these words. Something that we could only speak to our pillows about at night, sending our flesh into goosebumps and causing all sorts of a frenzy in our systems when thought about. A blinding spark, started by non …
Tell me you don’t stand there after your salaat still numb Fumbling with words You The loneliest of Khartoum Turn to your drinks, & your puff, & your tricks In heat In pursuit For a new game with a sweet derrière hoping to an illicit affair To throw then enjoy In her despair Then it’s …
Kitchen :Haven of the Bitchy Outbursts: Delicately she slices the two cloves of garlic into thin oval shapes. Scraping them aside on the cutting board she takes the wet parsley shaking it vigorously, loving the droplets that look like diamonds being flung all over the kitchen. Giving one last shake she gathers the leaves into …
Avoiding the stark beauty of you I lower my gaze. Walking into this Technicolor commotion of firehot candy, toub wearing transitionally young ladies, these porcelain beauties: painted eyes, angled brows, listless skin, spun silk, cherry lips, and a gaze outlined with kohl, finely entwined with a longing. I smirk at the constant dancing of toubs …
Typical how the scene unfolds. A pretty young girl, twenty three with a degree, top graduate from the University of Khartoum, far from a silly twit, soft-spoken, strong values, intelligent eyes, a future set with unbound choices. A tinkling laugh that came very often, very modest, done whatever could be done to please her parents. …
Retreating mother You lap at my ankles This bittersweet dance we keep stepping to But now it is my turn to do the standstill an unmovable force pent up solutions Raising arms I pay tribute to these shrinking horizons filling up with all these foreign investments infringements to our priorities & supposed betterments unequal in …
A tapestry of sorts, the night unfolded in all it’s modest glory as each individual went about. The youngest, with her ever secluded ways closeted in her bedroom, clutches to her man made fiction, reading away the apprehension, only it dawns on her that the content that had had her so spellbound was beginning to …
As if wanting to burst out of a womb his wizened eyes serenely watch the horizon, a birth he has witnessed as far back as to when he sat on his fathers lap, to him passing his shoulders, to now; a wife, six children, four grandsons & daughters later he stands that same stance, his …
… and with abandon she throws back her head to scream. Rolling my neck side to side, the crack that I long to hear evades me, so I grimly stare down at the china tea set, my brows furrowing at the obscene delicateness of lilies and gay peach streaks embracing the handles of each cup. …
1960’s: Driving over Kubri Bahri It was that part of the day where as the sun sets, heat waves gently smooth away squinted eyes into a relieved sigh. The swaying of the prayer beads draped around the rearview mirror is melodic, keeping in time with the azan. Dry heat no longer slapping his face the …
She had the symptoms of a raped victim. Crazed eyes, slit lip, tangled hair and violet bruises flowering along her jaw line. Yet she sat calm with a straight back, transfixed, waiting. She was no gentle Queen, even though her body was battered and broken her face glowed with fierceness and determination, bold but timeless. …
With a ready smile, a look so uplifting, a grace so daunting yet humble in every action. Raised with Sudan’s anthem ready on her lips, a heritage she never took lightly, but shown brightly as she skipped on the rain soaked bricks, vying for attention at the front seat and almost over spilling in her …
There she sits. Her silhouette a mere smudge on the horizon, the sun lazily rising, she calmly breathing in and out, ticking softly at her prayer beads while sipping at her shai, whenever I’d sit and remember this is what I’d conjure in my mind. Yuma Worn leather her skin is. Such durable hands, so …
So where you headin’… I rub my legs down from the crampness of sitting for twelve hours straight. Looking up to stare into the eyes of the tear streaked, snot covered kid sitting next to me, I wiggle my eyebrows , only to get the response of one of his snot bubbles located directly under …
I know what they’ve told you You a wilted flower Past its bloom Your ovaries a wasted graveyard Shriveled like a prune You doomed baby girl! Cue in the tumble weeds The divorced/childless/with6kids/oldersleeze/widow-wee Accusing me of not only being too picky But not ‘smart’ enough Not a good ‘planner’ A fashla (failure) of a huntress … Continue reading »
Personally, am not a believer of love at first sight. Should you feel a pang, boom and POW, that is certainly a ‘lust at first sight’. But I do believe in the ‘click’. It’s not as immediate or flamboyant, but that calming feeling that settles warmly at the bottom of your tummy. That internal sigh … Continue reading »
I looked into the eyes of my beloved, and I was set free. Feeling the crisp crunch of gravel under my feet I stop to admire the gathering encompassed in tacky lights and excited murmurings from the henna party. Yet, I cannot take another step. Symptoms of “The fear of being rejected on sight” begins to … Continue reading »
This is my gift to you daughter; you shall suffer as I’ve suffered, bear it well. Part I Mist hung within the house, infused with the smell of sandaliya, bakhoor, sighs of the dignified with their crisp toubs and flowing chatter of poisonous rivalry and envy. Each sat with her ghost of a past, a … Continue reading »
All this love and aggravation… Jose Cuervo Absolut Skyy Black Velvet 1800 X-Rated Jack Daniels VOX Crown Royal Smirnoff I’ve wasted so much of my life…Walking the aisle she scopes the vast choices of bottles lining up the wall. Different shapes and sizes, attractive, candy colored, filled with juices that literally have the power to … Continue reading »
It was a Good Day. She chanted this as she startlingly got up to curse the all nighter she pulled as she squints at the glaring 10:20. Grumbling at whatever force that pulled the strings in this chaotic universe she stumbles to the bathroom, clutching both sides of the sink, staring long enough at the mirror … Continue reading »
Try #1 I never knew a… Was there anytime when this woman never laughed? Or didn’t have a contagious silly grin favor her face? After the initial shock from standing outside in sweltering heat only to suddenly be enveloped in freezing sweat from the full impact of numbing AC Yasin ushers Sahar to her seat, ruffling … Continue reading »
