● POETRY IN VOICE
A PLANE TICKET
By Nadia Irshād
New Paragraph
the doctor presented the news
with one hand resting on my trembling knee
his voice faded as I was drawn into the motion of his lips
from within, a voice emerged
yelling, he's announcing the exact date of your pending death
within this artificial room
wearing a starchy bleached coat
under these fluorescent lights
in the presence of a buzz
the white noise rose like rage from the chlorine current
and slapped me in the face
the thinking, the voice,
ran on and on in a single loop
this is how
on this beautiful stretch of earth
where the hummingbird floats and the elephant walks
my one-way plane ticket is being delivered
to my body made of clay and water
the same water that descends from the sky
feeds the rose through a filter of soil, my skin
yours and mine
and keeps us all alive
then, escaping through the plastic space tunnel
the hospital hallway the scream led me to the outside
where I could see blue sky
the loop stood and left me
the first of my rapid thoughts said I should make a list
a list, a list, a list
the ink running ahead and staining the future