The sky wears the stain of your pulse’s dark ink,

Your veins strike my city like lightning.

In my body,

My mind,

My country,

You are sewn

Like two hearts in one flesh,

Forever ingrown.

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I pull my legs away from your grasp,

And the stitches give way,

My arterial maps lead only your way.

Whenever in Islamabad the rain starts to pour,

The clouds travel straight down

To the heart of Lahore.

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Malaika Rai is a Lahore-based poet and clinical psychologist. A consistent writer for the multilingual Canadian magazine De L’absurde, she has performed her work at Lakeer Khanaiyan and Olomopolo’s Beech Ki Bethak. Her writing is featured or forthcoming in Lakeer Magazine, The Aleph Review, Sanctuary Magazine, Artist Open Studio, Ok! Magazine, and Borderless Journal, among others. Her poetry has also been translated into Hindi for Gol Chakkar India.
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Picture Credits: Zaid Bilal