THE BOOKS WE OPENED
THE BOOKS WE OPENED
THE BOOKS WE OPENED
THE BOOKS WE OPENED


Rizwan Akhtar

HEADER PHOTO: Pandora and the Flying Dutchman © Cohen Media Group, 1951
poetry, nov 24









in my case it was anonymous tomes in
the shelf on which we bent and touched
dog-eared pages before you stepped
back wanting me to read a passage from
Anna Karenina, a language of betrayal
specked words, long-shut whether
a heart or a book welcomes doubt, eyes
squiggle, lips quiver; then we stumbled
on Persian ghazals, sandalwood couplets
revealed portals genies floating on carpets
divergent interpretations of poetry like
our fates, all versions of beauty go to
graves, but the desire is a child translating
making chapters of love behind doors
where books’ memory and yours tucked
unbeknown of hands which flipped them.












AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO


Rizwan Akhtar is a writer from Lahore, Pakistan. His debut collection of poems Lahore, I Am Coming (2017) is published by Punjab University Press. He has published poems in well-established poetry magazines in the UK, the US, India, Canada, and New Zealand. He was a part of the workshop on poetry with Derek Walcott at the University of Essex in 2010.

His poem “trail” appeared previously in the first anniversary issue of Small World City.


























THE BOOKS WE OPENED


Rizwan Akhtar

HEADER PHOTO: Pandora and the Flying Dutchman © Cohen Media Group, 1951
poetry, nov 24








in my case it was anonymous tomes in
the shelf on which we bent and touched
dog-eared pages before you stepped
back wanting me to read a passage from
Anna Karenina, a language of betrayal
specked words, long-shut whether
a heart or a book welcomes doubt, eyes
squiggle, lips quiver; then we stumbled
on Persian ghazals, sandalwood couplets
revealed portals genies floating on carpets
divergent interpretations of poetry like
our fates, all versions of beauty go to
graves, but the desire is a child translating
making chapters of love behind doors
where books’ memory and yours tucked
unbeknown of hands which flipped them.










AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO



Rizwan Akhtar is a writer from Lahore, Pakistan. His debut collection of poems Lahore, I Am Coming (2017) is published by Punjab University Press. He has published poems in well-established poetry magazines in the UK, the US, India, Canada, and New Zealand. He was a part of the workshop on poetry with Derek Walcott at the University of Essex in 2010. His poem “trail” appeared previously in the first anniversary issue of Small World City.
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