Sleep became my friend. It even brought my father back.
The dark was like his fur,
the sea’s breathing echoed his breathing.
I left home behind, an empty skin.
Alone, I walked taller, balanced better.
So I came to the gates of this city
– tall, black gates with teeth.
Here you find me, keeping my mouth small,
hiding pointed teeth and telling stories,
concealing their truth as I conceal
the thick black fur on my back.
*
The Wooden Family
Alone at home my husband
calls me, tells me he’s painting
a wooden family. He says
he misses us but I can
tell he’s captivated by
the wooden wife: she’s mild as
a mail-order bride; all day
she gazes at her wooden
husband, all night she cannot
close her adoring brown eyes.
But the wooden children scare
him. The girl’s too quiet – she
has nothing to ask or say.
The baby doesn’t cry or
babble. He looks and he looks.
I kiss my husband at the
airport, and we are shy as
strangers, the children like goats
butting our knees. I say he’s
pale – he says it’s too much sleep.
When we get home, our red house
has shrunk and filled with sawdust.
Eager to meet the family
I’m appalled by the wooden
husband. His hair is ginger,
he’s wearing a shirt I hate
and he’s baring his teeth – he
looks insane. His wooden wife
is lovely if you ignore
the way her head narrows at
the top. She has my eyebrows,
her red lips shine and she is
wearing a green dress that was
mine. I hold the girl in my
hand. She’s serene and pink, her
hair smooth against her head. She’s
so still, and she wants nothing.
The baby is gorgeous with
his enormous eyes and his
succulent mouth, but he’s too,
too tiny – he will be lost
in this world of sudden holes
in the floor and so many
sharp edges to damage him.
I know what this family means
to my husband, but all I
can say is, Why’s her head so
pointy, and what’s wrong with him?
Isn’t he happy with his
wooden life and his family?
*
fromThe Courtesans Reply
Tambulasena
In the beginning
my whole body was covered with skin
hard as rock. Then he came
and his mouth
running over me was a river, cool and quick
with small silver fish.
Night after night
he shaped me,
smoothed me down
to velvet
bones.
*
Now I bathe while he watches,
eyes fireflies
on my skin.
I bend over,
my hair between us
a curtain of water.
I let him towel me dry,
his strokes soft… then brisk,
a cloth shining a lamp.
Water drips down
my back. He grasps my hair
and climbs.
The Sixty-four Arts
Of pleasant disposition,
beautiful and otherwise attractive,
master of sixty-four arts including
music, dancing, acting, singing,
the composition of poetry,
flower-arrangement and garland-making,
the preparation of perfumes
and cosmetics, dress-making, embroidery, conjuring,
sleight of hand,
logic, cooking, sorcery, fencing
with sword and staff,
archery, gymnastics, carpentry,
chemistry, architecture
and mineralogy,
the composition of riddles, tongue-twisters
and other puzzles, gardening, writing in cipher,
languages, making artificial flowers
and clay modelling,
training fighting cocks, partridges
and rams, teaching parrots and mynah birds to talk…
Such a courtesan will be honoured by the King, praised
by the learned, and all will seek her favours
and treat her with consideration.
Contents List
11 You May Have Heard of Me
12 Skyros
13 Steps
14 Darker than the Pansies
15 A Portrait
16 Coke and Other Lies
17 Mwanza, Malawi
18 Story of a Small Block of Flats in Elephant and Castle
19 Winter
20 The Drowned Sailor
22 Singularly Calm, Rather Wise
23 True story
24 The Wooden Family
26 All This Time
27 Cape Town
28 Fallujah, Basrah
30 My Mother’s Embroidered Apron
31 Gold
The Courtesans Reply
34 Tambulasena
35 The Sixty-four Arts
36 Vanarajika
37 Ramadasi
38 Sukumarika
40 The Days of Chandragupta Maurya
41 Priyangusena
42 Ratisena
43 Messenger
44 Madhavesana
45 Pradymnadasi
46 Sondasi
48 Devadatta
49 Carandasi
50 Anangadatta
51 Epilogue
54 The Years
58 I Want to Tell You
59 At Six Months
60 Garden, Night
61 The Mummy of Hor
62 The Beauty of the Swimming Teacher
63 Wild Fennel
64 Sweetie Girl
65 Turieno
66 Roses
67 Still Light
68 Cousin
69 Goodbye, My Loveds
70 Notes on Found Poems
72 Additional Notes
Related Reviews
‘Shazea Quraishi, in The Courtesans Reply, sensitively reconstructs an unfamiliar and vanished culture. Working from historical and literary sources, Quraishi never allows her research to speak louder than the human voices of her characters, a community of courtesans in Ancient India. Their individual feelings and desires emerge through lines which are simultaneously spare and sensuous.’ – Richard O’Brien, Poetry London
