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Poetry Tuesday
Funeral Instructions in Haikus

Put it to the dirt: / lullabies, hair, memories, / nails, superstition.

By Hafsa Zulfiqar
Poetry | Poetry Tuesday
November 16, 2021

Decompose mother’s 

love in hectic moonlight, burn 

kisses sent to shore.


Put it to the dirt:

lullabies, hair, memories,

nails, superstition.


Forget her little hand 

stretched out laughing, in wait for 

a jovial slap


But the sand seeps through

hands desperate, knead gently 

a dough long gone dry.

Hafsa Zulfiqar (she/her) is an international student from Pakistan, studying literature and psychology at Bennington College. Her work explores brown identity, dreams, language, liminality, and above all the notion of home; it can be found or is forthcoming inThe Margins, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Kissing Dynamite, and Anti-Heroin Chic. Currently, she serves on the staff of Muzzle Magazine and Pollux Journal. You can find her on Twitter @HafsaZUnar.

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