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Writer's pictureStephanie Daich

BEDROOM PRISMS -Poetry by guest author Mahvash Mohtadullah



I get out of bed, slowly, numbly

The morning dopamine has not kicked in

In fact, I have no sense of it

I sigh … that’s never a good sign

It’s going to be one of those days again

I turn off the AC

The gentle hum that had filled the spaces

Where my happy hormone should have been racing

Stops.

I blink slowly

I look at my bedroom slippers

Their shadowy forms

Like yesterday’s leaves

Plucked off by the breeze

Lie on the ground

I get up and look at my curtains

Drawn together like knitted brows

Beige-blonde brows in a frown

Censorial, dragging down

I can’t bring myself to touch

Those sulking folds

To draw them back

In the ritual

Of morning time

I sit on the stool in front of my dressing table

I look at the woman

Staring back at me

Barely visible, her outline perseveres

Reminding me that I am still here

I watch her for a while

Feeling nothing - vacuous space

And then

I see something glimmer

At the back in the mirror

The prism that I had hung up

A vestigial piece of love

From a chandelier that has long since

Ceased to grace the space above

Had caught the first ray of light

That had tried to flow

Into my chamber of shadows


Teasing, romancing it

Holding, embracing it

In all its radiant rainbow hues

I turn around towards this scene

Of sudden brightness

I get up, pull back the curtain

Just a little bit. The colours

Fall in shimmering streams

Across my feet

I lift one up and then the other

I slowly dance with the rainbow of colour

My blood gushes warm, I have to smile

It doesn’t seem like another dog day after all.



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Bedroom Prisims

by Mahvash Mohtadullah


Bio:

Mahvash was once a part of the Financial Services Industry. Now she writes. When she’s not writing, she’s fussing in her head over ideologies of social justice and equality, with superhero twists! Mahvash’s stories and poems have appeared in The Rumen, Sequoia Speaks, Recesses, Every Day Fiction, and DoubleSpeak magazines. Her poem, “Veins” was long listed in the Plough 2023 poetry competition. She has published a book of short stories and three books in a children’s series.


Follow Mahvash Mohtadullah at:

Instagram: @mahvash_mohtadullah



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