FATHEMA BEGUM

 

 

 

Winter’s Spread

 

The depilated sunlight unfurls its sparse hair down the wall,

And shakes off the drops of memory,     

That burst open the uproar of the year, coiling to its end,

The chortle, the scream,

The groan and the moan,

 The blasted dreams,

 And the dreams splashed against the shore,

 The corrosion of smiles,

 And the snapping of life strings,

 All that will amass with what else, I know not,

  Erased from life’s board,

  And dangle as next winter’s spread.

 

From The Ash Grows The Green

 

A big junkyard,

 Of broken toys and cans,

Amassed over the years,

Weeds of hatred, envy and hubris,

To be set on fire,

The blaze hails fertility,

And from the ash grows the green,

The green of promise and creativity.

                                                                     

Language, The Blessing From God

 

Signs, sounds and words, the language,

Blessing from God,

To open our hearts to others,

To share our joys and sorrows,

To appease the distraught minds

 With the tranquil words,

To cut down vast distances

To love and befriend,

 And to bring forth our tales

From the closets of our minds,

Language, the blessing from God,

To pull down the barriers

And come closer to others,

And not to divide and barricade

And let loose the Satan of our mind

To spill the venoms of jealousy and hatred.

 

FATHEMA BEGUM

Dr. FATHEMA BEGUM qualified as M.A. M.Phil and Ph.D. in English is serving as a faculty member in the Department of Humanities, Assam Engineering College, Jalukbari, Guwahati -13.  She has of around nineteen years of teaching experience in both graduate and under- graduate levels in different Colleges.  She has published poems and research papers in several national and international journals and in anthologies such as,  International Journal on Multicultural Literature (India), The English Research Express: The International Journal of English Language and Literature (India), Margaret Atwood Studies,  (Academic Journal of Margaret Atwood Society, Canada) Indian Journal of Post-Colonial Literatures (India), Labyrinth (An International Referred Journal of Postmodern Studies, India), Literary Miscellany: An International Journal of Literary Studies (India), Muse of Now Paradigm: An Entry into Poepro, published by Authorspress, New Delhi under its collaborative effort with Guild of Indian English Writers, Editors and Critics (GIEWEC) in the year, 2020. She also participated as a content writer of the modules – "English Theatre Tradition in India" and "Indian Regional Theatre in Translation" for the Course on Performance Studies under Comparative Literature for e-PG Pathshala Project of the UGC under MHRD's National Mission for Education.