Today we’re shining a light on the multitalented Aisha Hamid. Her writing revolves around Pakistani women’s agency and the multiple meanings it comes to hold for them. Here are two poems that don’t hesitate to speak their mind. We hope they whet your appetite for her readings at our showcase event on 6th November. Remember, you’re invited.
Smallness
Aisha Hamid
My cats know my house better than I do.
How have they not gone mad
sniffing my dead body, sniffing the skeleton
of this house
never crossing its threshold, their house
is without lightness, without airiness to breathe
I smashed my head through the living room’s window without
a view of concrete and another window.
No one.
No one told me this house was built on graveyards
of women who fried their tongues on pans
I would have planted a dozen olive trees
yielded ninety-nine poems to the night sky
sprinkled rose water and chanted
take up space
take up space
take up space
Trapped Woman
Aisha Hamid
What do I do? When the moth shreds its wings, its bones crushing
against the window, and it finds itself
on the wrong side of it
An open window is an open window with glass still intact
How do I tell it? The doors in my house are never shut
The wind rushes up the stairs with heavy footsteps
and the neighbourhood cats have learnt to tell apart
the grief in each clink of the water bowl
Where do I run to? When this house is not mine
and I am on the wrong side of the door
I place the water bowl softly now
I open the window and the moth
Becomes dust.
(This poem was published in The Aleph Review, Vol. 5, 2021)
Aisha Hamid is a writer and poet based in Lahore, Pakistan. She is a cat mom of two grumpy cats who distract her with their deadly cuteness when she writes and often find their way into her poems. Aisha changed careers when working in the development sector gave her little fulfilment and now considers herself a living metaphor for a broke artist.
Aisha does not have a degree in writing or literature which is why she feels immensely grateful to have had the chance to study the different elements of fiction at WBB from masters of storytelling. She has learnt to practice patience and to let the characters come to her at their own pace. Often when words elude her, she finds herself jumping into the world of poetry to retrieve them.
You can reach out to Aisha on her Instagram @_aisha.hamid_ and Twitter @aishahamid93.
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