The Wardrobe ( detail ) by Sandra Saldanha

Afterlife

"Like oranges we roll right off the table.
I am lost like a goldfish stuck in sky.
No news of you, but I cry out
and you appear, carrying a photograph


of life tormented trees - how glad we are
to see our old stiff selves released
sucked down, and melting at the seams.
We'll make the mistakes we wished we'd made.


They say the soul might have some choice -
I could for instance be a taste or smell, 
something sharp curled on the tongue.
You and I as leopard breath or song.


From ' Split World'

Poems 1990 - 2005

by Moniza Alvi


Photo e Installation by Sandra Saldanha