TWO POEMS BY NAJIA KHALED

Najia Khaled is a Moroccan-American poet and Victorianist. Her poetry weaves mythology and folklore into depictions of the personal and the mundane. She has one collection of poems entitled ‘Wanderers, Witch-Talkers,’ for which she has also released a corresponding album.
onus

I woke up today
in a mood for salvation

fed my cactus
a thin
trickle
of water

like a fastidious
or a begrudging lover

leveraged a steady
amassing of days
into something

that could be
counted and weighed—

impotent augury,
a quick, careful
ache.

I feel like
a bundle of railroad ties
that are ready
and itching

to be laid out
quite straight.


onset

at 18
my body,
which had finally declared itself
quite firmly finished—

waxed into its wholeness
like an early fruit,
stalwart and exuberant
with the things it could do,

a body that prided itself
on being impervious to things—

started to grow old
around me.

now
at 21
I stir to press my palms
to the muscle that has
roused me with its hurt,

grateful that my hands
are always cold—

grateful that my hands
are likewise old as death

so they can
give their frigid comfort
to that grim ageing tendon
inside me.

and I feel no less
stalwartness
and no less
exuberancy.