May
Aftermath, digital drawing, 2022 (Project: An Unstable Love Story)
Look she scuttles into a brazen hole,
tunneled by seventeen centipedes, both healthy and sullen.
Spread the jam on your toes, it must be berry,
all the seeds crushed and peddled into crimson tar.
Never use a fork, unless it's rubber, for crimson stains steel.
The window with a beige mist strapped onto the hinges,
can be opened once, but never twice.
For the bugs that wait outside,
their scanty bodies slipping on the buttered bricks beneath the ledge.
I let them in through Aprils, for they come with merry tales of May.
The wretched tulip who screamed when pelted,
the chipping nail color on the old rubber boot,
the little boy who went all the way to the forgotten fridge,
rivers of melon and basil, lovingly cradled into its nooks,
a halo hung over the ice.
Remember when the rat shed its tale there.
Or was it a tail?
It was very long, that's all I know.
I don't have very much time for tales, you see.
Unless it's May.
May; when the picket fences are plastered with bat-wings.
May we come in, dear girl? We have a basket full of pickled ferns.
All ripe.
May we set our scars on your bowl, dear girl?
May we peel our swollen peaches while you dine, dear girl?
And just like that all the mays seamlessly fall into Junes.
Artwork by Keely Mclavin
Ammara Jabbar is a multidisciplinary artist and writer based in Karachi, Pakistan. She graduated from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in 2015. Since then, Jabbar has displayed her work in several group exhibitions nationally and internationally. In 2016, she was selected for the Gasworks Residency in London, U.K. She was also awarded the Imran Mir Emerging Art Prize in 2018 and shortlisted for the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize in 2020. In 2018, she worked with a group of artists for a project titled “Stories Around Jahangir Restaurant'', which aimed to archive the history of the Iranian Restaurant in Karachi. Jabbar was also a Visiting Artist Fellow at the Mittal Institute, Harvard University, from 2020-2021. She was one of the recipients of the Prince Claus Seed Award in 2021, a grant awarded to artists with innovative practices that address important social/political issues within their local context. Jabbar also works under the alias Prickled Pears. Find her on Instagram @ammara_jabbar and @prickled.pears
Keely Mclavin is currently based between Dublin and Westmeath, Ireland. Her work has previously been featured in publications like Apricity Press and Outpost Eire, as well as the group exhibition Antecedent hosted by TUD in the Cowshed Theatre, Dublin. Mclavin is in the final year of her Fine Art BA at Technological University Dublin where she specialises in paint, text, audio, and video art. Her work is often based on autobiographical themes such as love, relationships, and friendships, as well as mental health, gender, identity, sexuality, and womanhood. McLavin's art practice is centred around creating an empathetic space amongst viewers to expose mutual feelings and experiences. Follow her on Instagram @xkee.ly