Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Tuesday poem #329 : Manahil Bandukwala : Sandcritter



you straddle the world
between my dreams
and waking state

on the radiator fallen
black strands crisp
become a dust that gives
you form

incept plastic sheets
and stagnant shadows between
window panes

the lever is stuck
the window half open
snow flurries phase through
mesh tears up a black spot
runs in a vertical sliver

this is where you enter

when my body
convulses my partner sleeps
on unknowingly
return to the night animals

bats sometimes fly
this part of town

my partner picks almonds out
of mixed nut packages
and sprinkles
them on the windowsill

wish for squirrel
wish for skunk
wish for black pawed
raccoon

when you are gone
i wonder

did you learn
the forms of animals



Manahil Bandukwala is an artist, poet, and writer. She uses experiences and observations to produce art with a loose and carefree style. Her upbringing and culture greatly influences her poetry. Her creative interests include painting, illustration, sculpture, and poetry.

Originally from Karachi, Pakistan, she now resides in Ottawa, Canada. She studied art in her O Levels and privately throughout her adolescence. Currently, she is an undergraduate student in the department of English at Carleton University.

Her work, both visual and written, has appeared in a number of literary magazines across Canada, including Room magazine, The Puritan, Parentheses Art, ottawater, the Ottawa Arts Review, Coven Editions, carte blanche, and other places. She was the 2019 winner of Room magazine’s Emerging Writer Award. Her poem, “Pipe Rose,” was awarded second place in the George Johnston Poetry Prize.

Manahil is on the editorial team of In/Words Magazine & Press, a small press literary and arts magazine run out of Carleton University. She hosts the monthly reading series, promotes events and news on social media, designs covers and layouts, and carries out numerous other tasks for the magazine. She is also on the editorial board of Canthius, a feminist literary magazine.

The Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

No comments: