Farah Ahamed

Ode to Monsoon

The parched earth waits
Watching flashes of lightning
Gestures of love cross the dark sky
The monsoon is near

The moon of your love
Glows in every atom
Of every being
That awaits you

The leaf of a gulmohar
Trembles in the breeze
Trusting you will come
And slake every thirst

Flashes of thunder
Is that you here at last?
But thick, dense clouds float on
Without a drop

A jacaranda wilts
And falls off a branch
No sound when it lands
Only a whisper for you

The cracked earth
Dry, burnt and thirsty
I am still expectant
Though not a cloud in sight

Why do the koel’s feathers tremble?
Why does it open its beak
And release a welcome anthem?
It knows of some hope of which I am unaware

The moon of your love
Shines in every atom
Of every being
No soul lacks a path to you

A drizzle from the sky
Water falls on a blade of dry grass
Bliss pulses in the womb of Mother Earth
Every particle sighs

A cricket ventures out rubbing its wings
In the slow rain it dances
Loses its wings, its life
It cares for nothing, but you

A mountain shivers
From a drop of mercy
Turns to dust
No witness, except you

Dew soaked amaltas
Shimmering moonbeam
Falling rain
The beating heart of one soul

Monsoon rain
Essence of all beauty
Nothing in existence
Not exalting you

Farah Ahamed’s writing has been published in Ploughshares, White Review, LA Review of Books, Massachusetts Review, Markaz Review amongst others. She is the editor of Period Matters: Menstruation in South Asia, Pan Macmillan India, (2022) described as ‘an essential book about the female body that dispels misconceptions,’ by Book Riot. Read more of her work at: Farah Ahamed [/]

This poem was inspired by ‘The Moon of Your Love’ by Muhammad Shirin Maghribi [/]. The original was in Persian / Farsi. An English version by David and Sabrineh Fideler follows;

Not a single soul lacks
a pathway to you.

There’s no stone,
no flower –
not a single piece of straw –
lacking your existence.

In every particle of the world,
the moon of your love
causes the heart
of each atom to glow.

Thumbnail Image: Flash lightning over the desert, USA, Arizona. Photograph: blickwinkel/Alamy Stock Photo.