Two Postcards

Sacred Desert

Theory cannot contain this life, the unrelenting waves,
terrible secrets, or mottled rock of this sacred desert.
This is unmappable land–which won’t stop us from trying. 

Cough-syrup skies, sprawling dusks we spent splitting 
shawarmas with akkawi and karak in the front seat 
of your dim car, dokha blown discreetly, with precision. 

(our own particular language, the one no one knew or will ever know, now remains permanently changed, just like the shifting sands of this sacred desert. I should have known when you first brought me here.) 

Deflate your tyres, check the radiator fluid. 
This pilgrimage is for the sake of ancestors 
who did not know better when they first arrived. 

They expected a short trip, round. 
Now we bereave our dead, placing flowers 
in front of tablets and television screens. 

These days I look for a different kind of dune. 
These hills have taught me enough about 
cresting precious peaks without getting stuck. 

Perhaps nothing worth having should be named.

Karama Kids 

You like your sambar on the side, I prefer my idli swimming.
I am trigger-happy. You believe in deadly kindness. 
If I’m November morning, then you’re a night in June. 
One of us is a good dancer. 

You study broken bodies while I invent tired metaphors.
I’m an abra, nostalgic. You’re aquaphobic. 
If what you do is essential, then what I do is just as
necessary. We’re both in the business of human salves. 

If I’m relentless, you’ve had practice letting go. 
I make maps of everything the city demolishes, 
you marvel at the sunset, make me pose for pictures.
You’re crisp filo laced with orange blossom. I’m prone to melt. 

Both of us Karama kids, even if these passports say otherwise. 
I wish I could turn back time to spot us passing each other
on a zebra-crossing, destined to wait two more decades. 
Better late than never my love, you say. Masha’Allah, shukran.

Teresa Cherukara is a writer based in Dubai. She has been published by London Library Magazine, Taleem, and the Oxford University Press. She was an India Scholar at King’s College London, where she graduated with a MA in Comparative Literature. Her dissertation, Difficult Daughters, a comparison between the works of Jane Austen and Vikram Seth, was awarded with a distinction. She continues to be interested in difficult women, as well as the South Asian experience within the GCC. Follow her on Instagram: @teresafrancis_

Artwork by Noor Althehli