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      August 27, 2024Song of a Masjid’s FloorAmmara Younas

      Terry's Keys by Kim Beckham, photograph of keys hanging on a fence at a beach

      Image: “Lahore #44” by Faizan Adil. “Song of a Masjid’s Floor” was written by Ammara Younas for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, July 2024, and selected as the Series Editor’s Choice.

      __________

      I sang
      to atoms emptied in a mother’s feet
      replicating the prosody of Adhān itself
      the dust trembling like a lost child
      burgeoning parable-like when her feet
      shot up vertically         & as her face
      descended to meet my face         my eyes
      did not have the heart to meet hers
      mine torrid & hers         torrential
      I sang
      to vowels         lost         into a father’s lips
      thinking themselves         muhajir
      who don’t belong in tongues harvesting
      love off-season but in the tenement
      of Mihrab they found a home &
      journeyed back & sugared his mouth
      a spoonful of sweet persimmon        & he
      prayed take me before you take anyone
      I sang
      to a daughter adrift in the persistence
      of memory         as she hid desire in
      the crevice of the ceramic floor
      when amidst Sajdah         she kissed me
      homelike         I cradled her like my own
      her face dribbled down my arms
      feathering gathering to become whole
      until she abandoned it         &         went home
      faceless she told me she’d finally
      escape the guilt of being woman
      the lone daughter of Hawwa
      I sang
      to a son whose feet         gripped         me
      like hands holding up         soapy
      firmament of gods & though his touch
      was hot mess he stayed mere inches
      from visions of eden & though his
      touch was slippery he distilled love
      from abstract         plucked         flowers
      from wastelands         perfumed them
      himself & left me         with those flowers
      & a smile that could sun
      even         elegies
      I sang
      to a child with no mother no father
      his weight the heaviest to carry
      here my tongue         turned flamingo
      too long for meaning         to traverse
      through as he asked me to return
      the love he could’ve had         I dreamed
      of him turning into wild
      cherry blossom
      & if he sang back to me         I’d float
      outside my body and see seas
      of psalms sewn into people & ceded to
      me as they turned homeward
      but he’d come vacant         & never
      leave
      I sang
      & sang & sang
      swallowing sandals borrowing
      bottle caps I birthed footprints lent
      water         & sang & sang to
      no god but
      human

       

      from Ekphrastic Challenge

      Comment from the series editor, Megan O'Reilly

      “Two things immediately struck me about Faizan Adil’s artwork: First, the cultural and religious significance, and second, the sense that the figures in the foreground seem to be lost in their own worlds, as though each is a universe unto themselves. Ammara Younas’s poem prioritizes both of these elements. The poet paints a vivid tapestry of the life of a Muslim family, and though the poem is superbly cohesive, each stanza dedicated to a family member could easily stand alone as its own poem. The distinctive language, both earthy and elegant—‘tongues harvesting/love off-season’; ‘dust trembling like a lost child’—mirrors the image’s contrast between ornate reverence and human humility, a dichotomy that is also encapsulated in the poem’s last stanza.”

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