#Title

IS & WAS
DESIGN:
AMREETA LETHE
DILRUBA Z. ARA
Death dwells between is and was ,
Riding the final particle of a fading breath.
We become the prey of its silent summons,
Without human flesh, death cannot claim existence.
Death dwells at the edge of a chopped whisper,
Stretching into eternity’s embrace.
In its palm, death cradles the acquired soul,
Turning is into was , meaning into echoes,
As useless as a split consonant.
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Written upon my father’s death in 2001.
Dilruba Z. Ara is the author of internationally acclaimed novels A List of Offences and Blame . Ara’s stories and poems‒published in many international anthologies‒are studied at universities across the world. She has translated Selected Stories of Shahed Ali into English, A List of Offences into Swedish, and some of Sweden’s Pippi Longstocking stories into Bengali. She lives in Lund, Sweden. To know more about her visit her website www.dilrubazara.com.