“Walled City: A Qasida Cycle” by Shadab Z. Hashmi

A poem by alum Shadab Z. Hashmi (poetry, ’09) appears at Ink Knode:

 

Qasida of the water pipe’s gurgle on a starry night

 

Midnight alley, the poet watches jinn silhouetted

in pursuit of jinn on slim ledges of balconies—

secrets leaking like watered-down ink—

In the walled city, a bone-biting winter night

never comes without the witness of coal,

brass pots and the nightly haleem cooked

by the same Mughal family for generations

 

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