Memories of a Winged Cat
By Amirah Al Wassif

 

A thousand years ago, I was a winged cat,
climbing the facades of clothing stores,
eating donuts while solving crossword puzzles.

A thousand years ago, I sneezed loudly
on the steps of the White House,
and a shooting star inside replied,
"God bless you."

I love to imagine it sitting around
a table of five hundred moons.
A thousand years ago,
I used to collect shiny earrings
for orphans of every era.

And back then,
I spied on the heroes of historical tales
through a window in the seventh heaven.

I was just a one-eyed cat
writing poetry on the surfaces
of undiscovered planets.

.

 

The Mole of the Widow's Womb

 

I know a widow with a mole the size of a continent above her womb.
Every morning, I walk behind her, just like the townspeople do.
They carry telescopes to see her mole up close,
chasing after her with carnations and mirrors.
I tell my grandmother I’m afraid her womb will swallow us.
My grandmother blows cigarette smoke in my face,
wishing for peach fruits to grow at the tip of my nose.
We circle around her enormous mole, trying to sneak a glance inside.
“It’s a miracle!” the barber shouts.
The widow extends her hand like a bridge.
Half of her tongue is made of date paste, the other half of papyrus.
Children run to the first half; the elderly cling to the second.
Now the hour of hallucination begins,
and everything we once called reality becomes fantasy..

 

Amirah Al Wassif from Egypt is an award-winning poet with several publications. Her poetry collection, For Those Who Don’t Know Chocolate, was published in February 2019 by Poetic Justice Books & Arts, followed by an illustrated children’s book, The Cocoa Boy and Other Stories, in February 2020. Bedazzled Ink Publishing Company published her poetry book, How to Bury a Curious Girl, in 2022. She looks forward for the forthcoming poetry collection, The Rules of Blind Obedience, to released in December 2024. Her poems have appeared in various print and online publications, including South Florida Poetry, Birmingham Arts Journal, Hawaii Review, The Meniscus, Chiron Review, The Hunger, Writers Resist, Right Now, Reckoning, New Welsh Review, Event Magazine, and many others.