In Another Life
In another life, I can write a poem
that doesn’t punish me.
I learn how to look at the world,
to see through empty spaces,
wishes that remain unfulfilled,
my grandfather’s solitude behind closed doors.
Slowly, I realized why
the mad painter tore the portrait
of his beloved that never loved him back.
For the past months, grief has cradled me to sleep
with a tune– how sweetly she sings with
tender pauses for me to fill in.
And I realized not every absence is devoid of love.
I can speak a language that does not blister my tongue,
magnolias do not wither,
mothers no longer cry for their lost children.
In this life, I look at the sky asking
will I ever be whole. I realized when
when you clasped your hands, reciting a prayer to
not walk on those who love you.
In another life, in the bleak mid-winter,
I no longer worship your longing.
The magnolias bloom again by the thought
that you once loved me, the wind carries me to you.
In another life, there will be no clocks.
You will never feel cold again.
Grief
I
You crawl out of the jaye namaz,
scratching at my ankles.
It’s been a while since I thought of you.
II
The end is endless,
like a verse I keep misquoting,
folded back into itself.
III
Grief is a discipline.
I return to it daily,
kneel, rise,
leave you exactly where you were.
Momina Raza is a Lahore-based poet with an MPhil in English Literature from Kinnaird College for Women. A finalist for the 2025–26 Pakistan Youth Poet Laureate program, her work appears in The Aleph Review, Borderless, and Jashn Anthology Vol 2. Translated into Hindi in Golchakkar, her poetry explores longing, grief, desire, faith and identity, and she has performed at Lahore Literary Festival and Lakeer Kahaniyaan.