Zuhra Malik
When I said goodbye to you
your body beneath the گل,
I crushed the flowers you loved,
، گل سرخ
in the palm of my hands,
but I held onto them—
how could I let go?
From the earth we belong
and to the earth we return,
we grew our first roots in گل
in a room without electricity,
a frantic family carrying
a basket of figs,
a bouquet of گل.
How would they have known?
The bride throws
a handful of گل:
these are for you, my love.
Zuhra Malik is an Afghan-American writer and engineer based in Virginia. She has an orchid collection and a Bengal cat named Alpha..