I, The Word By Lareena Abdul Haq Poem by Lareena Abdul Haq

Words are my tongue
You ask to contain it
Abstain from relishing anything

Words are my hands
You ask to break them;
Punish them for embracing any and all.

Words are my legs
You ask them to be maimed
Chain them, so preventing them from
Going anywhere.

Words are my torso
You say that it should be imprisoned always
and made to lie as a corpse.

Words are my very blood
You tell me to turn them frozen.
You always insist on blocking menstruation.

Words are my craving
Words are my angst
Words are my safety
Words are my embrace
Words have become one with me.

By the mercy of words
I escape from this cruel world.
Dropping into your ears
As a tiny thunder
I yell.

As ever sprouting saliva
I keep speaking in your tongues.

My sorrows
My regrets
My sins _
the words within me
keep sucking secretly
as the Hajar al-Aswad stone.

Translated into English by Latha Ramakrishnan
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Note: Hajar al-Aswad - The Black Stone is a rock set into the eastern corner of the Kaaba, the ancient building in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. (in Kafathullah, Mecca) . During Haj, Umra rituals devotees would kiss it.