Annie Wright
Not an Important Day
Not the Prophet's birthday,
no special visitors due,
so you were granted
honorary woman's status.
Men withdrew, bemused,
from the Furshur's kitchen.
Zamzam, his number two wife,
teased and tugged grey hair,
called you shaiba - old woman.
Spearing titbits from the pot
she proffered them around,
ordered you to chop the onions.
Hawa, Asha and Feday ran
cackling up the path,
set the hens off squawking:
smothered you with hugs and grins,
fast-spat up your arms for luck,
abandoned concealing robes.
Hunkered round the charcoal fire,
howling, hooting, that day
we drank our tea before the men.
Sucking the bitter syrup
they asked about your son,
why we had no children,
whether (pointed looks and sniggers)
we shared the same hut at night,
who you wanted for your number two.
Once you looked up,
saw dangling from the rafters
the sheep's penis and balls.
Page(s) 8
magazine list
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- 14
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- Cannon's Mouth, The
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- French Literary Review, The
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- Interpreter's House, The
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- Lamport Court
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- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
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- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
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- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
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- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The