'Burial Waters' and 'A Beggar at Heaven's Door', by Sakina Qazi
Burial Waters
(Originally published by Nymphs Journal)
two bodies in the river
hyacinth cradle
for child
rose mallow veil
for mother
executioners, look
to the water’s vigil
for beaten creatures
watch the river weep
in this gorge of fools
see its mourning flood
carry maid and babe
to the gentle meads
A Beggar at Heaven’s Door
(Originally published by Amethyst Review)
I kneel at your gate in the maiden winter,
Near the cherry tree
And the sycamore
The painted fence
And the lantern pole
As they stand in their frozen languor.
I think, stooped on these ragged knees of mine,
What a callous cure is frost!
And her house of numb, numb rest
That never welcomes me.
Last year and the year before
My palms were cupped and dried
But they were contained.
Now they bleed and flail
And stain your entryway.
I watch the blood as it runs,
Four rouge gullies in the gravel.
Last year and the year before
My call to you was unsteady,
But it was civil, it was clear.
Now it is unmoored;
In the rain it cracks and splits
With that mauve sky besieged.
But your gate is yet unopened,
And thus I kneel
Through all these gelid nights.
Sakina Qazi is a graduate of the University of Miami. Her poems appear in West Trestle Review, Neologism Poetry Journal, One Art: A Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere.
“October”
Ethan Cunningham is a writer and photographer whose short works can be found in Abstract Elephant, New Plains Review, Topical Poetry, and others. He lives in California.