Spring 2020 Contest Runner Up in Poetry: Meetra Javed

By Meetra Javed

We Made It Home, America

5.

You took the cloth and washed my body,
whispered every grace,

“Alhamdulillah, She lived a good life.”

Loved like the moon tied to the sky,
sometimes full,
other times fallen—

but none the less,
a reminder of light.

Before you enclose me,
if my eyes are open-
shut them.

If you begin to grieve,
put your hand on my

swollen heart and recite
the salath-al-janazah.

Remember to tell yourself
If the dead could come
back and say one thing

it would be

‘I left
first, because
I was not strong enough
for the ones I love,
to leave me.’



About the author:

Meetra Javed is a Pakistani-American writer, based in Brooklyn. Her work has been featured in World Literature Today, Triangle House Review, Azeema Magazine, the University of Albany by way of Barzakh: NY State Writers Council, and Silverneedle Press. She is currently in the process of editing her first poetry book and works for a creative agency in Manhattan. Find her on Instagram at meeetraa and on Twitter at MeetraJaved1.