“Empire Ekphrasis,” a series of poems by Shadab Zeest Hashmi (poetry, ’09)

A series of poems by Shadab Zeest Hashmi (poetry, ’09) appears in Mudlark:

… for the rest of the series, click here.

William Morris, Strawberry Thief (textile design)

Strawberry Thief Singing

The thrush, caught jubilant, after stealing 
ripe fruit from the artist’s garden, goes to 
a prison of textile, serves a sentence 
of centuries in cotton, needles passing 
through her feathers, stitches on the sigh
(or the ghost of song) in her bill, on wings.
She will be stretched on Raj furniture
across the commonwealth, a souvenir
in chintz, her crime displayed on bedspreads.
She will hang from windows, a doll of the wind.