The Power In A Power Blackout.
Growing up in the late 80s it wasn't unusual to have four out of seven nights when we had to make do with candles and kerosene 'kandili'.
Tag: nostalgia
Ode To My Grandma
Lines on her face
So much has she seen
She stares far into the past
To the places she has been
Of times of trouble,
And Hunger -when locusts
Were prime cuisine.
Little girl she was lost
Deep in the desert at night
They came with pitch forks
And flaming torches
Terrified of the jinn.
The well would have swallowed her
If for Allah”s Will it had not been
Scared, cold, asleep on the dirt
But for Allah’s Hand protecting her
She’d have toppled into the unseen.
The wrinkled face smiles
Remembering yet another scene
The moody ocean, the filth, the sails
hope of a new land beguiles
Days and days of sickness
For they have feet
not fins
Now many lifetimes later
We sit around her
Our ears keen
Our beloved matriarch
Her strength her wisdom
And her deen
Then suddenly without warning
One day she is gone
We weep we remember
With her story we are not done
I smile as I write this so early
In the morn
She would have frowned -disapproved:
“Better you read Quraan!”
A prayer for you dear grandma
May there be diamonds in your crown
For all the hardships you endured
For all you have borne
With patience and thankfulness
May Allah grant you Jannah
The abode of peace and happiness
Paradise may you have won.
Before The .com
We lived in simpler times when our mothers would go off to complete whatever they needed to get done leaving us still playing outside. Safe in the knowledge that kindhearted caring neighbors would call us in when it was late, feed us and keep us until they got home . Who would, on other days, leave their own kids in our mothers' care.