Auntropomorphia
The eldest in the family tree
rains barrage of sharp acorns
wherever you go a stubborn bomb-
bard tracks your ticks
Lady fingers, not
to be outdone, possess the hiss
art of unctuous intimidation
so slippery - before you know it
you’re a fallen woman
The garden variety are a parliament
of pale pink roses, faint blush
and thorn make short work
of undefended flesh, nape
left tender just in case
a butterfly alights like a kiss
to them you are forever
perishable goods, a snow-
flake on a crow’s wing
in the cross
heirs of their hawking
Popcorn
She says popcorn is the worst
as I tilt back, between spit
and suck. Gums feel like shrapnel in your mouth
an explosive leaves soft flesh and hard crack, the plaque like a plague.
“Decades since I left Kabul, but could never understand
strange English that walks
about America “ it’s the bomb” is that good?”
It’s the sensation, I reply, the way
sweet, salty, buttery, whiteness fills as you watch
chase or place go up in flames
unopened kernels stay
buried at bottom, out of sight
Until stepped on
she says, lifting her pants to flash
a prosthetic leg.
Rumble Strip(e)s Forever
I don't know
what, we're even
celebrating any more, she said, breaking
A roll of pennies open
register, pay and pay
no mind
Thought, a Frederick Douglas bubble
wrapped my lips, wedged
tight as bills in the dash
Home, a shiner
sun, painfully pinned
medal poking bark
up the old
oak breast
Oh say, can you see
this body, drowning
frowns, myriad ripples
reflecting on
the one
pointed wound.
Sophia Naz is a poet, author, editor and translator. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize; in 2016 for creative nonfiction and in 2018 for poetry. Her work features or is forthcoming in Rattle, Fence, Berfrois, Meridian, Poetry At Sangam, Poetry International Rotterdam, The Adirondack Review, The Wire, Chicago Quarterly Review, Blaze Vox, Scroll, The Daily O, Cafe Dissensus, RAIOT, Ideas And Futures, Chapati Mystery, Guftugu, Pratik, Gallerie International, Coldnoon, VAYAVYA, The Bangalore Review, Madras Courier. She has authored three poetry collections; Peripheries (Cyberhex 2015), Pointillism (Copper Coin 2017) and Date Palms (City Press 2017) and Shehnaz, a Biography (Penguin Random House 2019). Open Zero, her fourth collection of poetry was published recently by Yoda Press.