2 Poems by Fizza Abbas

My living funeral


I imagine my funeral ceremony,
a lively affair beneath a maple tree,
where orange and red leaves enjoy a graceful Zumba
amidst gusts of wind, tears, steadfast oaks, and somber sumac,
feathers from injured birds delicately paint
a more solemn scene than my passing away.
               My story shifts                             when I inscribe

                                                    'yours’
at the end of my suicide note & finally realize
not everything has to be about me.


D-o-gma of dealing with mullahs

When I dare speak of freedom, mullahs of my community threaten to eat me alive and offer my remains to dogs as a vile feast. Because they are pet-lovers and want to put my carcass to good use. I understand.

Once I sent them a bunch of apples, asked them to make an apple pie, and serve it to their dogs.
They threw the apples on my face, for who I was to assume the apples of their eyes would actually like to eat apples?

“Fair enough”, I said. “What do they like to eat, then?” I asked a mullah before he was about to go call the adhan. He touched his ears with his index fingers, right finger holding the right ear and the left finger holding the left ear, and said, “Allahu Akber”, God will never forgive you, for talking about a dog in a masjid. Don’t you know it’s a haram janwar (forbidden animal)”? “But moulvi saheb”, I replied, “you just admitted having them as your pets. Then, why can’t I talk about them?” “Because I’m a God-fearing man, I have a deeper connection with Him than uneducated savages like you, so it’s different for you & me.”

“I see, I apologize, molvi saheb. The thing is, I’m a Dog-fearing woman. It scares the hell out of me when your little pup barks at my door, so next time you meet your God, ask Him to teach your dog to bark elsewhere, not outside my home, for it, too, is a forbidden territory for both dogs & gods.”


Bionote

Fizza Abbas is a writer based in Karachi, Pakistan. She is fond of poetry and music. Her work has appeared in more than 100 journals, both online and in print. Her work has also been nominated for Best of The Net and shortlisted for Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition 2021.