I am something insidious and weary—
an angry machine
with no energy stamping with impatience
for life-giving hope
to be more than a pale blue memory.
I have felt so peculiar for days—
unable to dream
or dance or read. I am just plodding
from hour to hour to ever waking hour.
How I dread
the tyranny of the wet grey weeks
before me.
Will I ever again be close to feathering
into strange green poetry?
Nazifa Islam is the author of the poetry collections Searching for a Pulse (Whitepoint Press) and Forlorn Light: Virginia Woolf Found Poems (Shearsman Books). Her poems have appeared in Gulf Coast, The Missouri Review, The Southern Review, Smartish Pace, The Rumpus, and Beloit Poetry Journal among other publications. She earned her MFA at Oregon State University. You can find her @nafoopal.