Landays: The poetry of Aghan women

You sold me to an old man, father.

May God destroy your home, I was your daughter.

~0~

My body is fresh as henna leaf:

green outside; inside, raw meat.

~0~

I call. You’re stone.

One day you’ll look and find I’m gone.

Landays and Picture above from Poetry Foundation, June Issue 2013

Here are my own landays:

I walk each step as lightly as the wind.
My burgha covers my wounds, heavy as a mountain. 

~0~

I bathe, but this body belongs to many:
my father, my brothers & the old man with coins.

~0~

The words flow like honey from my hand.
I imagine your cheeks, like pages, pressing into mine.

~0~

Beneath this veil are the eyes of a bird,
even when it seems I have forgotten my wings.

~0~

I am more than just a stone.
Someday, I will build a tower for all my sisters.

Posted for OpenLinkNight of D'verse Poets Pub - June article of Poetry Foundation is dedicated to the Landays of Afghanistan..   I was reminded of how lucky I am to write freely, of poetry specially, without the threat to my life nor womanhood.

Poetry form:  Landay is a two line poem or a folk couplet, depicting the themes of war, separation, homeland, grief or love.