perhappened
  • the mag
    • the issues
    • submit to the mag
  • the press
    • the chapbooks >
      • CALIFORNIA IS GOING TO HELL
      • body in motion
      • sun of daedalus / song of anticlea
    • submit to the press
  • support us
perhappened mag
issue 3: HEATWAVE

prayer for desire

SARAH FATHIMA MOHAMMED
it’s late & yet so early, the sun’s 
cheeks flushing into melody, bees
circling your wrists in the backyard 
like summer & Thangachi touches
your forehead, rubs her chubby 
hand, sticky with red popsicle & both 
of you laying in dead stalks of grass, 
dark hair splayed together, hot like 
wildfire & your eyes are glazed & 
her eyes are glazed & you tell her 
a million fairytales, each one
heat-slow, knotted in honey--
once there was a princess who 
married a princess & once
there were two queens & two
princesses, a bloodline of women 
soft as seasilk & once there were
two moons, bodies identical
feeding each other a spoonful
of sky & once two angels swallowed 
each other’s lips & Allah said okay
 
& she’s too little & you feel too old 
& from the corner of your vision 
you see two half-opened sunflowers
blooming from the cracked pavement 
lining the cul-de-sac & they remind
you of Amy & nothing feels alright 
but here you are & you let Thangachi pry 
the stories from your hands callused 
with worry & you imagine her opening 
the knots into sticks of light & 
you remember Amy & her hair, 
soft as night, how you ran
your fingers through the strands 
in the half-light, how she found
the syllables in your breath & pulled
them out one by one like fireflies 
& she murmured, don’t be afraid, 
both of you falling asleep, legs 
tangled, bodies warm & bed too 
small & when a sliver of light 
touched your eyelids you prayed
for repentance, prayed to not be afraid,
prayed for Allah’s nod, her breath falling
into your neck like a memory & you 
thought, this is what it means 
to love
& now Amma brings 
out incense & it coats the wind 
in grease, smoke lifting like a soft 
prayer & again, you hope 
for forgiveness.

Sarah Fathima Mohammed is a Muslim-American emerging writer from the San Francisco Bay Area. She has been recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and the National Poetry Quarterly’s Editors’ Choice Prize. When she is not writing, she serves as managing editor for The Aurora Review.
perhappened mag
← back    issue 3: HEATWAVE    next →
header photo: annie spratt (unsplash)

© 2020-22 perhappened LLC
  • the mag
    • the issues
    • submit to the mag
  • the press
    • the chapbooks >
      • CALIFORNIA IS GOING TO HELL
      • body in motion
      • sun of daedalus / song of anticlea
    • submit to the press
  • support us