Catalogue of Loss, and; Two Vigils on Homewood Campus, Baltimore
- Catalogue of Loss, and; Two Vigils on Homewood Campus, Baltimore
Catalogue of Loss
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Two Vigils on Homewood Campus, Baltimore
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for Our Three Winners
When I enter the Waverly Giantin my knit blue hat
it is as though the storeis meeting me again, hair
bound for the first timethis is not a smart time to start
Our Three Winners will be killednext month and I, with my hijab
will look like one of themI will remember crossing
back to Homewood, exhalingheavily across North Charles
my breath caught over the campus gate over
a candle in a paper cup held for a moment of remembrance
I will remember and I do my knit blue hat
last month's walk, somehow the safest shrouded in a prayer my mother
must have whispered over my whole self over and over
my mother not the first to make this plea, every day is a reminder
mothers know there isn't enough love to keep us all here
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for Christchurch
First, we were walking from Waverly,crossing the road from Roland Park:every first step towards a vigilevery fist clasping a spark.
This, a moment of silence—not a placefor thoughts and prayers with no cost.We said "Deah, Yusor, and RazanOur Three Winners, too soon lost."
Four years have passed, now the worst of our fearstheir backs to the door, noses to the floor
and I walk out again, say a prayer against hateas if these are words that will ever set in.
Every breath like a chant, "Say their names"on a loop. Say "never forget"in packed rows we pray, salatul-ghaibfor the martyrs, unseen, yet never unnamed.
Pray for Khaled and Hamza, father and sonpray for Mucad, the youngest at three,for Syed Jahandad Ali and Atta Elayyan.for Abdullahi, Sayyad, and Ansi.
Pray for Hussein, Osama, Mojammel, Haroon,Husna Parvin, who flew to her husband's side,took his bullet instead. For Amjadand Abdelfattah, for Linda.
For Ali and Imran, and Haji Daoudwho opened the door, said Salaamto his brother who slayed him.Grant peace to the families of Lilik, [End Page 6]
of Ashraf, Mounir, and Areeb.Let rest Junaid and Tariq,Matiullah and Suhail Shahid,all Shaheed.
Grant Jannah to Ashraf El- Moursy, Musa,Ozair, Arifbhai and Ramiz.Meheboob, Hussein, and Zeeshan.Ghulam, Karam Bibi, Abdukadir.
Mohsin, Muhammed Abdus Samad,and Ahmed. To Mohammed, Naeem, Talha,and Farhaj. God let rest Kamel and Muse Nur,Zakaria, Muhammad and Mohamad. [End Page 7]
Ayesha Shibli is an Indian Muslim-American poet based in the DC-Maryland-Virginia area by way of Long Island. She majored in writing seminars at Johns Hopkins University and received her MFA in poetry from the University of Maryland. Her work won the 2018 Academy of American Poets University Prize and appears or is forthcoming in the Birmingham Poetry Journal, Iron Horse Literary Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and elsewhere.
