My mother enjoys the healthiest bamboo broom. It cost her 15 rupees and only five calories were lost during the Battle of Bargain. I am not in her army but she drags me into the field. The enemy’s armour is poor, has a big gnawing hole right around where his heart should be. I do not believe 10 rupees more or less could change him or his life. Above me, the sun turns my country to a boil. I clear my throat. I start my training for bargains. I say to him Hello Assalam u Alaikum. My mother tuts, hits me with the broom.
Ayesha Raees identifies herself as a hybrid creating hybrid poetry through hybrid forms. Raees currently serves as an Assistant Poetry Editor at AAWW's The Margins and has received fellowships from Asian American Writers' Workshop, Brooklyn Poets, and Kundiman. Raees's first book of poetry, "Coining The Wishing Tower" won the Broken River Prize hosted by Platypus Press and judged by Kaveh Akbar, and will be forthcoming in March 2022. From Lahore, Pakistan, Raees is a graduate of Bennington College, and currently lives in New York City.
