Poetry at Sangam

Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.

Talaq Talaq Talaq by Sonnet Mondal

To the women who stood against Triple Talaq

 
When days turned dusky for you
I knew you waited for full moon

to see how baya weavers rub beaks
in consent to preserve their love.

Like a globetrotter who never rides on
the fanfare of trumpets,  of war and glory

I knew how you craved for equity
crying like a maudlin Stradivarius.

Your Nikah was no devotion,
but the carousal of a ravenous brute

and as you realized those owls
waiting to carry your chicks

like pouches of field mice
all that you prayed for was new moon.

I know now, from your palms
sliding from ears to cheeks

and from your eyelids
opening like hushed oyster-shells —

pearls still shine in your eyes —

that never feared, never gave up

to scream a hundred Talaqs
to Talaq, Talaq, Talaq

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