POETRY
Questions for Potential Guides to Barzakh
by Fatima Malik
I
Is it as you
said? Did pain end
with the end? Are you
finally free?1
II
Is it true that
Dabeer is the master
of the marsiya?2
III
Are you still
quibbling
with Anees?3
IV
What was His
real response
to your Complaint?4
V
Have the angels
unionized yet? Are you
spending more time
locked up than not?5
VI
Is separation really
everything you made
it out to be?6
VII
Are you still
on the out-
skirts, or did they
let you in? Your words
bear witness.7
1 Question for Mirza Asadullah Baig Khan Ghalib, poet of Urdu and Persian, 1797–1869.
2 Question for Mir Babar Ali Anees, poet of Urdu, 1803–1874.
3 Question for Mirza Salamat Ali Dabeer, poet of Urdu, 1803–1875.
4 Question for Muhammad Iqbal, poet of Persian, Urdu and Punjabi, 1877–1938.
5 Question for Faiz Ahmed Faiz, poet of Urdu and Punjabi, 1911–1984.
6 Question for Jaun Elia, poet of Urdu, 1931–2002.
7 Question for Parveen Shakir, poet of Urdu, 1952–1994.
Fatima Malik is a poet with work published in diode poetry journal, The Georgia Review, Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s The Margins, Poetry Northwest, Waxwing, and others. Through her poems, she continues to grapple with grief from her father’s sudden passing and stay in conversation with her heritage. She currently resides on unceded Munsee Lenape and Canarsie land.